Maya Kramer

Maya Kramer's work serves as a haunting counterpoint to the frequently exaggerated and overly sentimental depictions of life found in popular culture. The artist employs unexpected materials to recreate images from the natural world – using coal and fake diamonds to create a night sky, constructing a tiger skull from laundry detergent, and crafting a jungle from the pages of The New York Times. The end works are a peculiar blend of the tangible and illusionistic, and the intersection of the man-made and the organic realms. 

Biography of Maya Kramer

Maya Kramer was born in Washington in 1977. She earned her BFA in 2000 from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, and later completed her MFA in 2006 at Hunter College in New York City.

For nine years, she resided in New York City, where she worked in the curatorial department of the Guggenheim Museum and with private collectors.

In 2010, she relocated to Shanghai and has since showcased her work globally, collaborating with institutions such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre in Hong Kong, the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, Holland, and The Shanghai Gallery of Art in Shanghai, China, among others. She has been honored with the Jacob Javits Fellowship, and her art has been featured in various media outlets, including Fortune Art, Randian, and Blouin Art Info.

Maya Kramer's solo exhibitions include "Decoy" at Capsule Shanghai in Shanghai (2018), "Against the Wind" at Frontline Contemporary in Shanghai (2014), and "From Where It Springs" at Truecolor Museum in Suzhou (2009), among others. 

Currently, she serves as a teacher at NYU Shanghai as an adjunct Instructor of Art History. She is also a regular contributor to Frieze magazine and Cobo Social.