Austin Artist Chalda Maloff Brings Fantastical Underwater Visions to OVERDRIVE

Two digital artworks from Maloff’s Sea Jewels series explore imagination, transformation, and the search for respite in an overstimulated world.

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, October 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Austin-based digital artist Chalda Maloff will exhibit two works from her Sea Jewels series in OVERDRIVE, a juried group exhibition at Lydia Art Salon in Austin, Texas, on view November 14 through December 20, 2026.

Featuring Polyphony (2024) and Seeking Clarity (2025), Maloff’s vividly imagined underwater compositions offer a compelling counterpoint to the exhibition’s exploration of contemporary anxiety, uncertainty, and resilience. Through intricate digital imagery, vibrant color, and fantastical marine forms, the artist invites viewers into immersive environments that blur the boundaries between the natural world and the imagination.

Curated around the pressures of contemporary life, OVERDRIVE examines how political conflict, environmental crises, technological change, and the accelerating pace of daily existence affect individuals and communities. The exhibition invites participating artists to consider the tensions between despair and hope, action and fatigue, and alarm and resilience, asking what it means to remain engaged in an increasingly destabilized world.

For Maloff, whose artistic practice has long explored the possibilities of digital technology, imagination offers more than an escape from the pressures of contemporary life; it also provides a means of understanding our experiences and finding resilience. “To me, our relationships are fundamental to how we interpret what we encounter as well as our creative potential to overcome,” states Maloff.

Fish are recurring subjects throughout the series, chosen for their positive associations across cultures and spiritual traditions. Symbols of transformation, abundance, happiness, and freedom, they inhabit elaborate fantasy worlds in which organic forms, luminous color, and intricate visual patterns coexist.

Maloff’s relationship with technology dates to the early 1970s, when she studied computer science at a time when the field was still considered unconventional. Having initially pursued art history, she spent decades working across traditional media, including oil painting, acrylics, aquatint, and clay, before bringing her interests in art and technology together through digital image-making. Her digital practice allows her to synthesize techniques and visual effects that would be difficult or impossible to achieve through conventional media, creating richly layered compositions that celebrate artistic experimentation and imaginative freedom.

The exhibition is juried by Stacey Abel, Bijoy Goswami, and Deanna Miesch, founder of Lydia Art Salon. Through a range of artistic perspectives and media, OVERDRIVE encourages reflection and dialogue about the challenges of contemporary life and the possibilities for hope and resilience.

About Chalda Maloff
Chalda Maloff is an Austin-based digital artist whose work combines technological innovation with a lifelong interest in art, nature, and the imagination. She holds a doctorate in Human Ecology and has exhibited throughout North and South America and Europe. Recent solo exhibitions include Brownsville Museum of Art in Texas and Ceres Gallery in New York City. Her work has received numerous honors, including first place in L’arte della Pesca in Castel di Sangro, Italy, and Top Selected Piece in Hindsight 2020 at Arthouse.NYC.

For more information about the artist, visit www.chalda.com.

Heather Zises
Avril Media Group
avrilmediagroup@gmail.com
Visit us on social media:
LinkedIn
Instagram
Facebook

Media gallery