Biography
Maya Gelfman
Born 1978, Israel, lives and works as a nomad (USA, EU and Asia), since 2017.
A multidisciplinary artist: painting, installation and street-art.
Graduated from Shenkar School of Art & Design, BA, 2006.
Exhibition Highlights:
Gelfman has exhibited ten solo exhibitions. Next show opens this June at the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, USA.
This April she’ll exhibit new paintings at the Venice Biennial, Italy. Previous solo exhibitions include the National Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand in 2015.
Previous group exhibitions include the Israel National Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Haifa Museum of Art,
and art fairs in London, Miami, and Washington D.C.
Residencies & collections:
She has participated in artist residencies in the U.S, Europe and Asia, including at the Swatch Art Peace in Shanghai, China
and the Windgate at KSU University, USA. She was a finalist for the Halcyon House fellowship in 2019.
Selected collections include Lettenmayer & partners, R. Saker, H.Bornstein, Swatch Art, Creative Discovery Museum, Historic Building 98, Milu Hotel.
Media and Publications:
Her work has been featured in films and on TV, in print and online, and has been published in four international art books.
In 2013, she gave a TEDx talk about her innovative approach to art making.
Street Art:
In 2009 she co-founded 'Mind the Heart!', a street art project that has since reached over 100 cities on 5 continents, in addition to exhibiting in galleries and museums. Between 2017-2021, she created a 365/24/7 performance in public, spanning 100,000 KM (60,000 miles),
across 48 States in the U.S.A. To learn more about the journey: “The Serendipity Experiment”
Artistic practice:
Gelfman’s commitment to site-and-time-specific processes drives her to work across mediums, materials and contexts.
Somatic tools are deployed to inform artistic decisions: brush strokes are synchronized with breath, external sounds determine textures,
color scheme and density of layers are influenced by her surroundings. Art is made as a dynamic event, an inner dialogue with an external landscape.
Artist statement
I’m a multidisciplinary artist (painting, installation and street-art).
I focus on “site-and-time-specific” works, informed by where and when each work is made.
In a deliberately responsive and spontaneous practice, I deploy somatic tools to engage directly with my surroundings and let sensory input
inform artistic decisions. Works are made as performances becoming the tangible evidence of a transient event.
The body becomes the conduit through which the raw intensity of expression is registered.
In the streets, it acts as a component of the composition. In the studio, large canvases are laid on the floor, gestures appearing on the canvas are connected to the body's movement through space, brush strokes are synchronized with breath, sounds determine textures, density of layers is influenced by the view from the window.
I’ve been honing this technique for twenty years, alongside a mindfulness practice, but the fascination with the immediate and the visceral started
many years before. As a child, I lived through a near-death experience during an open-heart surgery. That event shaped not only my worldview
but the very way I work today. The urgency with which I create is fueled by an embodied understanding of impermanence.
My works investigate the multifaceted aspects of trauma and healing, posing a foundational question: can painful experiences serve as transformative catalysts? Having experienced the connection between life and death, teetering on that threshold, compelled me to explore dichotomies inherent in existence - the clash between internal and external realities, fragility and resilience, beauty and decay.
When transformed into a creative process, these contradictory notions can form symbiotic relationships, allowing for agency, balance
and release to occur.
My practice is grounded in Symbiosis, in the possibility of a whole that includes the broken parts. Moreover, one that can only be made whole
by this inclusion. Yet I strive to go beyond the resolution of opposing forces and into a place of raw experience, where awareness of life,
in its myriad of expressions, unfolds from moment to moment.
This informed two major life-decisions: to work in diverse fields (‘white cubes’, the ‘streets’ and in nature), and later on, to become an artist-nomad,
on the move since 2017. As art and life became intertwined and change became the only constant, the process remained the same.
My works are not predetermined, but rather context-based. The work became a stage where the fleeting plays out and takes form.
It’s a life-choice and an artistic commitment, ongoing and all-encompassing. A continuous conversation between internal and external landscapes.
* * *
Breakdown of series over the years
My process has always been multidisciplinary in every aspect, from the mixed-media materials (acrylic paints, markers, industrial mediums, thread, fabric, duct-tape), to the integration of various techniques and tools (artistic and meditative), and all the way to where the works are being exhibited.
The Beginning:
The early Paintings ("Red Heart", 2007/8 and 2009) are naïve drawings of bodies and situations, subtle yet disturbing. Minimalist figures floating
in white spaces. With time, layers appear ("Illusions & Reality", 2010-2012 and 2013), representing the struggle to resolve past, present and future.
In these years I practiced a slow Sisyphean process, in which I was working for months on each piece.
Then a change took place, and my practice shifted into a dance-like rituals. ("Release", 2014-2016). These paintings were done in one continuous session. Each session took between a day to three days of working continuously.
The Serendipity Experiment 2017-2021
Between 2017 to 2021 I was immersed in an experimental performance. Together with my partner I traveled across the USA, over 100,000 km (60,000 miles), creating site-specific works in public spaces, daily.
Living on the road for four years (of which two in the pandemic), all the while dedicating myself to “the unknown” as a guiding tool, herald another big shift in my process. It changed the way I perceive stability, home, possessions, necessity. It altered the way I lived and subsequently, the way I created.
The Unimaginable Horizon 2022-2023
Thus, my return to the studio in late 2021, uncovered the tantalizing realization that this journey of serendipity, fundamentally changed my work. Inspirations and techniques that I had previously relied on now felt rusty, irrelevant. I couldn’t just pick up from where I left off, but rather, had to allow the full breadth of my experiences to manifest directly onto the canvas. Free of the need to adhere to one "coherent" idea, an uninhibited creativity was unleashed. So far, I’ve painted fifty paintings, intuitive works that represent a form of cartography – to places within and without, familiar and unknown –they can be read as maps to blocked paths and new roads.
The Shanghai Series June - 2023
Mixed media, abstract, action-paintings, that were created at the Swatch Art Residency, between June-Sep 2023.
All done through the aforementioned site-and-time-specific practice. Each piece was directly influenced by the experiences on the day it was created - the time (day or night), the season (typhoon season), the sounds from the streets around the Peace Hotel Building, the people passing by, the views of the Bund, and the reflections on the Huangpu River.
CV / Resume
Solo Exhibitions
2024
Neither Here Nor There, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia, USA
2023
Bodies of Work, ONKAF Gallery, New Delhi, India
2022
The Unimaginable Horizon, AG18 Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2019
Form, Re-Form, AG18 Gallery, Vienna, Austria
2017
Outside looking in, National Art Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
2016
Split Ends, Tel Aviv Artist House, Israel
2013
Spark, Zadik Gallery, Jaffa, Israel
Process, Tel Aviv City Municipality Arts and Culture division, Israel
2012
Rise!, Tsuk Gallery, Netanya, Israel
Heartbeats, Weiss House, Tel Aviv, Israel
2010
Strings, Artists House, Tel Aviv, Israel
Group Exhibitions
2019
Metamorphosis: The Place of the Past in the Present, CITYarts, Orlando, FL, USA
2017
ARTROOMS, Meliá White House, London, England
Radical Love, Crypt Gallery, London, England
2016
Wire/less Connections, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Vitrinart, The Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
Grand Opening, Milu Gallery Hotel, Florence, Italy
2015
Stories the Streets tell, The Israeli Children’s Museum, Holon, Israel
Hamekarer, The Old Wholesale Marketplace, Tel Aviv, Israel
S2G, kulturkueche, Mönchengladbach, Germany
Presence, Tirosh Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Temporary Crew, St.Art Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2014
Slideluck III, Tel Aviv, Israel
Launching Meshuna, Meshuna Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
2013
Testing Tools Festival #10, Beit Tami, Tel Aviv, Israel
Note to Selves, Container, Jaffa port, Israel
7F, 7th Floor, Tel Aviv, Israel
Base Colors #2, IIsrael-Lebanon border, Peace & Activism Art event
2012
Heroes in Distress, Art Basel, Miami, Overture/Scope art fair, USA
Once I was a House, art event, Caesarea, Israel
Small Scale - 20\20, Zadik Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Creation Cycle, Hangar 2, Jaffa Port, Israel
Free Art Friday, Tel Aviv, Israel
Spring Festival, Shapira neighborhood, Tel Aviv, Israel
Base Colors #1, Israel-Syria border, Peace & Activism Art event
On the Fence #3, Jaffa, Israel
Love Art Make Art, Open Studio, Tel Aviv, Israel
2011
Haifa Walks, Haifa Museum of Art, Israel
ZEMIKEA, Tsuk Gallery, Netanya, Israel
Mind the Heart, The Container, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sea Breeze, Artist Residency, Bat Yam, Israel
On the Fence #2, Jaffa, Israel
Mind the Heart, Dining Room, Tel Aviv, Israel
Ward Nasse, Ward Nasse Gallery, New York, USA
2010
Cannons & Muses, Tama University of Art, Tokyo, Japan
de:frost Festival, Jerusalem, Israel
2009
Biennial #2, Herzliya, Israel
Secret Art #4, Beit Mani, Tel Aviv, Israel
Love Art Make Art, Open Studio, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tan, P8 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
1.2.3.4 I Declare an Art War, Shorashim Gallery, Israel
White Trash, Tel Aviv, Israel
2008
It’s a Small Big World, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
2005-2007
Designers of the Future, Tel Aviv, Reading Power Station, Israel
International Woman’s Day, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Dialogue, Tzavta Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel
Residencies
2023
Swatch Art Peace Hotel Residency, Shanghai, China (June-September)
Windgate Residency, KSU University, GA, USA (September-October)
Core Dance Company, Atlanta, USA (April-May)
2022
Roza Center for International and Interdisciplinary Art, Krakow, Poland (June)
2019
the Sichow Foundation, Krakow, Poland (Feb)
2019
Halcyon House fellowship, Shortlisted
Collaborations & Public Actions (under Mind the Heart! Project)
2023
Wishing Wall, mural & masterclasses, Georgia Highlands College, Cartersville, GE, USA
MTH! in Kennesaw, masterclasses, School of Art, Kennesaw, GA, USA
Mantra, mural, Core Dance, Atlanta, GE, USA
2022
SEED & NTTL, mural & performance, Rosa Foundation, Krakow, Poland
Looking at Place, exhibition, Katzman Contemporary, Dover, NH, USA
O/Art, fundraiser for Ukraine, Atlanta-Chattanooga, TN & GA, USA
2021
Introduce Yourself, exhibition, Kliger Gallery, Lund, Sweden
2019
The Poland Project, mural & performance, Sichow Foundation, Artist Residency, Krakow, Poland
2018
New Poetics of Labor, Al camello camello y al amor amor, exhibition, Espacio, Medellín, Colombia
MTH! in D.C., event, By The People Arts Festival (Smithsonian, National Cathedral, Union Market, Walter Reed, Arc West, D.C., USA
Bodies of Water, permanent installation & masterclasses, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, USA
The Spaces Between #1, exhibition, JCC, Foster City, CA, USA
The Spaces Between #2, exhibition & mural, PJCC, San Rafael, CA, USA
MTH! in Houston, exhibition, City Hall & Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX, USA
Towards One, permanent installation, Building 98, Marfa, TX, USA
2017
Be Here Now, permanent installation, Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga, TN, USA
MTH! in Hillary R. Clinton Library, event, Little Rock, AR, USA
MTH! in Atlanta, exhibition, Decatur Art Alliance, Decatur, GA, USA
MTH! in Apopka, permanent installation, HCC, Apopka, FL, USA
MTH! in Portsmouth, exhibition, Prescott Park & 3S Gallery, Portsmouth, NH, USA
MTH! in Tel Aviv, Pilot for USA Tour at Beit Tami, Tel Aviv, Israel
Publications and Books
2022 "Unravelling Women’s Art, by PL Henderson, Aurora Metro books, England
2018 "Al camello camello y al amor amor" by Cristina Velásquez, NPOL, Colombia
2016 "Wall, wall" by Dominque Lafon, France
2015 "Street Messages" by Nicholas Ganz, Dokument Press, Germany
2013 TEDx TLV Talk: "Creating out of not knowing"- the creation of SPARK Solo Exhibition >> to see the talk
* Curitorial texts: www.mayagelfman.com/curatorial-texts >> to read the texts
Press & selected articles: www.mayagelfman.com/press
Selected collections
Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China
Lettenmayer & partners, Czech Republic
Goldman, Erlich, Gaver, Edelstein & Co. Law, Israel
Historic Building 98. Marfa TX, USA
Creative Discovery Museum, Chattanooga TN, USA
MILU Art Hotel, Florence, Italy
Magdas Hotel, Vienna, Austria
Herzliya Municipal Library, Israel
M & M Schmitz, Vienna Austria
R. Saker, Caesarea, Israel
O. Shatil, Tel Aviv, Israel
S. Sternbach, Tel Aviv, Israel
H. Bornstein, Tel Aviv, Israel
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