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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

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