Biography
Maya Gelfman (b. 1978, Israel). Graduated from Shenkar School of Art & Design in 2006.
A multidisciplinary artist: painting, installation and street-art.
Exhibited nine solo exhibitions in Israel, Europe and Asia, and participated in dozens of group shows. Among others at the Israel National Museum, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Haifa Museum of Art, The National Gallery in Bangkok, Art Rooms Art Fair in London, Overture Miami Art Fair (Art Basel Satellite), Tama University of Art in Tokyo, The Smithsonian and National Cathedral in Washington D.C (By The People Art Festival).
Featured in the media, print and online, films and TV, and published in four international art books: "Unravelling Women’s Art, England, 2022”,
“Al camello camello y al amor amor, Colombia, 2018”, “Wall, wall, France, 2016”, “Street Messages, Germany, 2015”.
In 2013 Gelfman gave a TEDx talk about her artistic process, sharing the stage with Tel Aviv’s prominent women leaders.
In 2015 Paper Magazine named her among the top ten street-artists in Israel.
Back in 2009 Maya co-founded a street-art project with her partner, Roie Avidan called Mind the Heart! Project, that reached over 100 cities
across 5 continents and exhibited extensively. Gelfman's unique technique of drawing on walls with tangible materials (yarn, foam, duct-tape)
and Avidan's poetic approach to photography and wordsmithing are the project's signature style.
Between 2017-2021 the duo created The Serendipity Experiment - a 365/24/7 performance in public - spanning 100,000 KM (60,000 miles),
in 45 states, all across the U.S.A.
This journey entailed committing to intentional wandering and the use of the unknown as a guiding tool.
To enhance these guidelines they donated their belongings, left their home and traveled to a foreign country, and invited strangers to dictate their route, schedule, and next encounters. At every location that they were sent to, they created a site-specific work. Culminating in hundreds of works, meaningful interactions, exhibitions and lectures.