Maya Smira is an award winning multidisciplinary artist, who use time based media, photography & installation, as well as performance, dance & movement. Her creative process is deeply involved in larger global and social issues and events, and is effected by her constant travels around the world.
In 2012, she obtained a BA in Arts and Humanities, and a BFA in photography in Tel-Aviv.
In 2014 she received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute New Genres department, along with the Ella King Torrey Award. In 2016 she received The Outset Foundation Award for best video artist at the Fresh Paint Contemporary Art Fair in Tel-Aviv. She exhibit in Museums, Galleries and Festivals around the world, while teaching and lecturing about art & photography.
EDUCATION
2014 MFA, New Genres, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2012 BFA, Photography, Minshar for Art (with honors), Tel-Aviv, Israel
2012 BA, Art & Humanities, The Open University (with honors), Israel
2007 Advanced Photography Training, Geographic center, Tel- Aviv, Israel
2003 Beginner Photography Training , The Rotchild center, Tel-Aviv, Israel
AWARDS &RESIDENCIES
2019 Swatch Art Peach Hotel Artist Residency Program, Shanghai, China
2018 Honorable Mention, International Photography Awards, NYC
2018 Artist in Residence Program, The Freezer, Riff, Iceland
2016 AICAD Studio Residency Program, NYC
2016 Exhibition grant by the Cultural Department of Tel-Aviv Municipality and Yehoshua Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts
2016 Outset Award for Video Greenhouse Artist, Fresh Paint Art Fair, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2014 Finalist Award, LG Art of the Pixel Contest, New York City, NY
2014 ESXLA Artist in Residence Program, LA, CA
2014 Ella King Torrey Award, Commencement Ceremony, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2014 Paul Sacks Building Award Honorable mention, Academic Honors and Awards Ceremony, The Photography Program, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
2013 Christopher Coppola “Pah” Festival, Cellphone Art First Prize
2013 Christopher Coppola “Pah” Festival, Mobiflicks Competition First Prize
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Wilfrid Israel Museum of Asian Art & Studies, Kibbutz Hazoreaa, Israel
2019 Tension, Brownie Project Art Gallery, Curated by Peipei Han, Shanghai, China
2018 Playground, Municipal Art Gallery, Gordon-London House, Rishon Lezion, Israel
2017 Present Perfect, Artists House Tel-Aviv, Curated by Sharon Toval,
Supported by Outset Contemporary Art Fund
2016 Intervention, Minshar Gallery, Curated by Oded Yedaaya,
Supported by Tel-Aviv City Cultural department & Rabinovich Foundation, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2013 Code Name: Thailand, Paul Sacks Still Lights Gallery, San Francisco, CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 Contemporary Art Center Ramla, Curated by Smadar Sheffi, Ramla, Israel
2019 Bitter Sweet, Muza Plus Art Project, Muzeum Sztuki of Lodz, Poland
2019 Now With Noise, Weizman Institute of Science, Curated by Yivsam Azgad, Israel
2019 Prom, Beit Tami, Curated by Carmit Blumensohn for Fresh Paint Art Fair, Tel-Aviv
2019 Aesthetica Art Prize Exhibition, York Art Gallery, UK
2019 Concealed between Interior & Exterior, Rehovot Art Gallery, Curated by Ora Kraus
2019 Checks and Balances video screening, Parallel Toronto, Canada
2018-19 I to Eye, Israel Museum, Curated by Shir Meller Yamaguchi, Jerusalem, Israel
2018 Musrara Mix Festival, Jerusalem, Israel
2018 Pillar of Cloud, Hermann Struck Museum, Haifa Israel
2017 International Photography Festival, Tel-Aviv Israel
2017 Empire II, Spektrum Berlin, curated by Vanya Balogh, Germany
2017 Songzhuang Photo Biennale , Beijing, China
2017 LACDA Curated by Anna Katz & Dhyandra Lawson, LA, CA
2017 Empire II, Castello, la Biennale di Venezia, Italy
2017 Saatchi Screen at Saatchi Gallery, London, England
2017 Prime Time, Central Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2017 HerzeLilienbloom Museum, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2017 X is for Xenophobia, Steinfeld Warehouse Community Arts Center, Tucson, AZ
2017 MADATAC International Video Festival, Madrid, Spain
2017 Capture the Moment Photo Exhibition, Galleri Norsken, Stockholm, Sweden
2016 Teddy Gallery, Curated by Carmit Blumensohn, Jerusalem, Israel
2016 Haaretz Photo Exhibition, Binyamin & Indie Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2016 Avi Internatuinal Video Festival, Cinema City, Jerusalem, Israel
2016 San Francisco Art Institute Alumni Exhibition, curated by Katya Min, SF, CA
2016 Petach Tikva Museum, Video Stage curated by Or Tshuva, Petach Tikva, Israel
2016 International Festival TANZTENDENZEN 2016 Greifswald, Germany
2016 Spirit of Israel Fund Raise Exhibition, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2016 Haifa Museum of Art,Curated by Svetlana Reingold, Haifa, Israel
2016 Fresh Paint Contemporary Art Fair, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2015 See Me, Florentin 45 Contemporary Art Space, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2015 See Me Exhibitions, Landscape Collection, Musee du Louvre, Paris, France
2015 Bearing Witness: Surveillance in the Drone Age, San Francisco International Art Festival, Fort Mason, SF, CA
2015 Everybody's Ocean, Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, CA
2015 Living with Endangered Languages, Root Division, SF, CA
2015 The Smell Of Dust, Photography & live performance, Sau Paulo, Brazil
2014 Fresh, South Bay Contemporary, Rolling Hills Estate, CA
2014 APAture, Kearny Street Workshop, Arc Gallery, SF, CA
2014 LACDA Art Fair, Center of Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA
2014 Stoff, Stockholm Fringe Festival, Stockholm, Sweden
2014 Night Light , SomArts , SF, CA
2014 Art Basel Contemporary Art Fair, Galeria Zero, Basel, Switzerland
2014 Experimental Film Festival Portland, Disjecta Art Center, Portland, OR
2014 Principal, SFAI MFA Exhibition, The Old Mint, SF, CA
2014 Generation, SFAI & CCA Collaboration, Some Thing Spacious, Oakland, CA
2014 Emerging Artists Exhibition, University Art Gallery, CSU East Bay, CA
2014 Imagining Cityscapes, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 Group Study, Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Cubic Sound2, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
2013 Borderline, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Sirens, Paul Sacks Still Lights Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Untenable Dynamism, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013 Code Name: Thailand, Paul Sacks Still Lights Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Balls Out, Queens Nails Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Then and Now, Paul Sacks Still Light Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 Minshar Graduation Exhibition, Minshar for Art, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2012 Israeli Film Festival Exposition, Cinema des Cineastes, Paris, France
2011 Photography Students & Neighboring Communities, Hangar 2, Jaffa Harbor, Israel
2009 TLV 100, The Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria
PUBLICATIONS
Ride or Die, Dodho Photography Magazine, February 2017, Barcelona, Spain
The Exposure Award, The Landscape Collection, See Me and Scope Art Show 2015, Paris, France
Israeli Lens, Fine Art Photography Magazine, December 2014, Tel-Aviv, Isreal
Art In America Magazine, August 2014 Issue, NY
MFA Exhibition Catalog, San Francisco Art Institute, 2014, CA
Zine Colloquy, Jessica Montgomery, 2014, SF, CA
MFA Now Archive Project, Root Division, 2014, SF, CA
MFA Now Archive Project, Root Division, 2013, SF, CA
Erev Rav: Art. Culture. Society, Shani Varner, July 2012, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Minshar For Art Graduate Catalog, July 2012, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Calcalist Magazine Promising Artists, March 2013, Tel-Aviv, Israel
