Ma’ayan

About the Artist

Ma'ayan is an Israeli contemporary artist whose paintings explore the emotional and spiritual landscapes that exist beyond ordinary perception. Working through abstraction, texture, and expressive gesture, she creates compositions that invite viewers to move beyond the visible world into a realm of memory, intuition, and inner experience. Her work does not seek to describe reality, but rather to evoke the unseen forces that shape our lives.

For Ma'ayan, painting is an intuitive process guided by movement, emotion, and the raw energy of creation itself. Layers of textured paint, shifting forms, and luminous color become a visual language through which the ineffable may be approached. Each work unfolds as a journey into the unknown, where certainty gives way to discovery and contemplation.

Although abstract in appearance, Ma'ayan's paintings remain deeply rooted in the human experience. They reflect moments of mourning, healing, vulnerability, reconciliation, and transformation. Works such as Zalman's Suite, Night, Teacher of Faith, and Between Worlds explore the fragile space where loss gradually yields to hope and where the visible world opens toward spiritual awareness.

Rather than offering fixed narratives, her paintings invite personal reflection. Viewers are encouraged to relinquish the need for rational explanation and instead experience the work through intuition and emotion. In paintings such as Run!, confrontation becomes an opportunity for liberation, calling us to move beyond conditioned patterns of thought and into a deeper encounter with ourselves.

Yet beneath the movement and emotional intensity lies a profound sense of stillness. Ma'ayan's work ultimately leads toward presence—a quiet awareness that transcends form and language. It is within this space that memory, love, and the mystery of existence reveal themselves most clearly.

As installation artist, photographer, and curator Linda Sim Solay writes, "The experience of love is what calls from beyond." That invitation lies at the heart of Ma'ayan's work: a journey beyond appearances toward the infinite depth of human experience.

Biography and CV

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Jerusalem Biennale, Beit Alliance

2019 - 20 Alon Gallery, Ramat HaSharon, IL 

2018-19 The Mamilla Gallery, Mamilla Hotel Jerusalem, IL

2018 Yahalom Gallery, Ramat Gan, IL

2016 Artists Refuge, Jerusalem, IL

2013-14 Marrache Fine Art, Jerusalem, IL

2010 JKlaynberg Gallery, New York, NY

2001 Santarella Museum and Gardens, Tyringham, MA

 

Awards

2019 Artist's Nest, Jerusalem, IL

2017 Artist's Nest, Jerusalem, IL

2015 Fellowship, Art Kibbutz, NY, NY

2013 Israeli Government Grant

2007 Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2007 Artist Grant, Stephen Sprouse Foundation, NY

2006 Fellowship, Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL

2006 First Place Award, Lorraine Grace Prize, National Academy of Design

2002 Artist Grant, Edward G. MacDowell Travel Grant

2002 Artist Grant, Marchutz School Study Grant, France

2001 Fellowship, Santarella Museum and Gardens, MA

2000 Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2000 Juror’s Award, The Artist Magazine’s Annual National Art Competition, Portrait Category

 

Group Exhibitions

2023 Interfaith Church, NYC, Genesis

2022 Beit Alliance, Jerusalem, Israel, Journeys

2017 Jerusalem Biennale, Museum of Underground Prisoners

2015 Jerusalem Biennale, Hechel Shlomo Museum, Jerusalem, IL

2014 Marrache Fine Art, Jerusalem, IL

2012 Miami International Biennale, Miami, FL

2011-12 Marrache Fine Art, Jerusalem, Israel

2012 Arts.Kruh, Miami Beach, FL

2011-12 ArtWorks Austin, Austin, TX

2010 Lore Degenstein Gallery, Susquehanna, PA

2009 Lore Degenstein Gallery, Susquehanna, PA

2009 Pen & Brush, Fall Brush Exhibition

2008 Invited to participate in the Florence Biennale

2007 Maryland Federation of Art, 30th Annual Art on Paper Exhibition

2007 Allen Sheppard Gallery, NY

2006 National Academy of Design, Juried Show, NY

2004 Art Student’s League, NY, 2 person show

2003 - 04 Baisden Gallery, Tampa, FL

 

Teaching Experience

Owner and Instructor, Atelier Pnimi, Jerusalem, Israel

Instructor, Montclair Museum of Art, Yard School of Art, Montclair, NJ

Intensive Expressionism Workshops 2007 - 2009

Expressionism, 2006 - 2008

Move Brush Move! workshop 2007

 

Education

BFA, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

Art Students League, New York, NY

National Academy, School of Fine Art, New York, NY

Marchutz School, Aix en Provence, France