Maya Kramer

Maya Kramer is an Assistant Arts Professor of Visual Arts at NYU Shanghai. Over the past nearly twenty five years she’s worked as an artist, curator, writer, consultant/collection manager and educator both in the US and China. She has exhibited at such institutions as CAFA, in Beijing, and the Hong Kong Arts Center in HK, and participated in the 2023 Arctic Circle residency that sailed around the international waters of the Svalbard archipelago.  She is represented by Capsule Gallery in Shanghai, China and Venice, Italy.

In her practice, Kramer has created sculptures and installations that probe the relationship between humans, ‘landscape’, and ‘nature’ in the age of the Anthropocene/Capitalocene.  The artist has integrated recycled materials, pollutants, and more recently weather states into pieces, mechanical installations, and tableaux that conjure beauty, estrangement, and loss.  Time, entropy, and transience also figure prominently and are at times enacted in her overture and serve as a reminder of the limits of human perspective. 

Her research interests include materiality, art in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene, Modern and contemporary art, the visual imaginary of landscapes, painting, sculpture and installation and drawing. Through her various roles in the art world, Kramer has amassed a rich and interconnected body of knowledge and experience that informs her art practice and aids her in helping students develop their own work. Website: www.maya-kramer.com

Select Exhibitions and Residencies

Solo

• 2018, Decoy, Capsule Gallery, Shanghai, China
• 2014, Against the Wind, Frontline Contemporary, Shanghai, China
• 2009, From Where It Springs, Truecolor Museum, Suzhou, China
   

Group and Residencies

• 2024, When We Became Us, Capsule Venice, Venice, Italy
• 2023, Participant, Arctic Circle Residency, International Waters, Svalbard Archipelago
• 2023, The World is My Mirror, Zhuqizhan Art Museum, Shanghai, China
• 2023, Not Limited by External Objects, Chantilly Art Center in Songjiang, China 
• 2023, Eco-Vision Plan, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China  
• 2019, The Kind Stranger, UNArt Center, Pudcong, Shanghai, China 
• 2017, Extension at Sea, China Art Museum, Shanghai, China
• 2014, Unseen Existence, Dialogues with the Environment in Contemporary Art, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China       
• 2015, Beyond Architecture, Long Museum, Shanghai, China    
• 2014, Unseen Existence, Dialogues with the Environment in Contemporary Art, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong, China   

Select Reviews

• 2018, Maya Kramer, “Review, Goshka Macuga, What was I?” https://www.cobosocial.com/dossiers/goshka-macuga-what-was-i/
• 2018, Maya Kramer, “Critics’ Guide: With Shanghai’s Busiest Art Month Underway, Highlights of the Best Exhibitions in Town”. https://frieze.com/article/shanghais-busiest-art-month-underway-highlights-best-exhibitions-town
• 2018, Leigh Tanner “Review, Maya Kramer: The Allure of Nature”, CoBo Social, https://www.cobosocial.com/dossiers/maya-kramer-the-allure-of-nature/
• 2018, Jin, Shunhua, “Review, Maya Kramer, Uncontrollable Absence”, in Art Monthly, (2018):13-14
• 2017, Maya Kramer, “Review- Geng Yini”, Frieze Magazine

Education

• MFA
  Hunter College
• BFA
  Maryland Institute College of Art