Maya Hayuk (1969)

“I am super inspired by the rhythms and patterns music can create in my mind’s eye, they do translate directly to what I make visually and I respond so deeply to music.” Interview by Anna Langer, Collerlifestyle.com, Augustus 2013.

The artist from Brooklyn started as a photographer of the San Francisco punk rock scene in the 1990s before gaining international prominence for her monumental abstract and psychedelic paintings.

The artist paints outdoor murals all over the world and, when not traveling, maintains an active studio in Brooklyn, sketching in paint to inform the large-scale works. She sees her studio painting practice and mural making as both inversely relational and symbiotic.

With their symmetrical compositions, intricate patterns, and lush colors, Maya Hayuk’s paintings and massively scaled murals recall views of outer space, traditional Ukrainian crafts, airbrushed manicures, and mandalas. Hayuk weaves visual information from her immediate surroundings into her elaborate abstractions, creating an engaging mix of referents from popular culture and advanced painting practices alike while connecting to the ongoing pursuit of psychedelic experience in visual form.

Maya’s work has been shown in many solo exhibitions and on-site commissions, in particular the Bowery Wall, NY (2014), the Hammer Museum, LA (2013), the Museum Of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada (2013), Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands (2012), the MIMA, Brussels, Belgium (2016)

Maya Hayuk has often curated exhibitions, is a member of the Barnstormers (a group of women artists), the Cinders Art Collective, and has frequently worked together with artists and musicians including TV on the Radio, Rye Rye/M.I.A., The Flaming Lips, Animal Collective and the Beastie Boys.