Short Biography
Maya Gelfman
Born in 1978. to a family of immigrants that had fled from Moldova (at the time, the USSR) to Israel.
She has been a nomad since 2017, both as a life-choice and an artistic practice. Her work is rooted in “site and time specific” methodologies: facilitated by movement and change, intrinsically connected to where and when it was made.
From painting to installation, performance to street-art, she uses the body to investigate impermanence, fragility and resilience, beauty and decay. In a process that entails total immersion, she serves as an observer and a participant.
Deploying somatic techniques allows her to engage directly with her surroundings, and let the sensory input inform artistic decisions. Brush strokes are synchronized with breath, sounds navigate the hands and feet, colors and textures are determined
by the landscape, the time of day or night, the season.
Since graduating with a BA from Shenkar Art Academy (2006), Gelfman’s work has exhibited extensively,
including at the 60th Venice Biennale, Italy (2024), the Zuckerman Museum of Art, USA (2024), the National Gallery, Thailand (2017), the Israel National Museum (2016), and art fairs in London, Miami, and Washington D.C.
She participated in six residencies including SAPH (China) and Windgate (USA), and was shortlisted for the Halcyon Fellowship (2019). Her work was published in books (in London, Germany, france, Colombia and USA), and can be found in private and public collections including Lettenmayer & partners, Rivka Saker, Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Creative Discovery Museum, Historic Building 98, Milu Hotel.
Beyond institutional spaces, she co-founded 'Mind the Heart!' (2009), a street-art project that has reached over 100 cities globally. In 2013, she gave a TEDx talk on her intentional practice. In 2017, inspired by fluxes and improv theory, she created The Serendipity Experiment, a public performance spanning four years and a 100,000 km across North America.
To learn more about the journey: “The Serendipity Experiment”.
