Maya Yadid

Maya Yadid

Maya Yadid

Maya Yadid (b.1986, Jerusalem) is a multidisciplinary artist based in NYC. Her works combine ceramic and mixed materials, archival research, social interventions and food. Yadid explores ideas of collective and subjective memory, through her personal history as a third generation Jewish-Israeli of Yemenite and Turkish descent who immigrated to the U.S.

What is Hidden

2019 Installation view and documentation of social engagement Ceramic, curtain, table cloth, unfired ceramic, hammer, cheese, bread, zaatar, olive oil, spicy sardines Dimensions variable

‘I think about it as a way to bring people together around food...food is the essential expression of a longstanding tradition of hospitality in Middle-Eastern cultures.’
—Maya Yadid

What is Hidden, documentation of social engagement

Maya Yadid's practice addresses the marginal spaces of diasporic identity and investigate the way food and hospitality are used as a vehicle to celebrate this cultural diaspora.

We Must Build as if the Sand Were Stone

2018 Installation view, unglazed ceramic, sand Dimensions variable

Nekavim

2020 Installation view Ceramic, bread, kitchen pedestals, curtain, tiles Dimensions variable

Individual Captions: Cloudy Vessel, 2020, unglazed ceramic, bread, glazed tile, kitchen cabinet Dark Vessel 1, 2020, unglazed ceramic, bread, tiles Terracotta Vessel, 2020, unglazed ceramic, bread, glazed tile, kitchen cabinet Dark Vessel 3, 2020, unglazed ceramic, bread, wood, kitchen cabinet

Maya Yadid in conversation with Joachim Pissarro

Maya Yadid: I like to think about the vessel as containers of food, or water, or wine but also as containers of stories and memories. And I’m interested in how we commune and share food, especially when you think about the divides that are in Israel and Palestine or in the US too. I am learning about my history and identity through these aspects.

Joachim Pissarro: The first impression I have is that you take us back to a very early Mediterranean civilization. This I could imagine being up for a Christian or biblical scenery, a kind of archeology of early civilization. The metaphor also talks about the content of the vessel and the breaking of the vessel in order to produce something that comes out of it. Are you referring to The Last Supper in your work? Because that could very well be set up for this or more to just a general ancient trope for the immense importance of eating together, which was extremely vital in the early Mediterranean, and Asia Minor, which you just mentioned.

Maya Yadid: I think about it as a way to bring people together around food, which is something that I’m very drawn to. In a way, it’s as you said, was very important in the early Mediterranean, but it is still important to my opinion, food is the essential expression of a longstanding tradition of hospitality in Middle-Eastern cultures.

Hunter MFA

The annual Spring 2020 Thesis Exhibition for graduates of the Hunter College MFA Studio Art program represents works by 19 artist graduates of this nationally noted program. Originally planned as a series of physical presentations at Hunter’s 205 Hudson Street campus in Tribeca, but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MFA Thesis Exhibition’s digital iteration aims to provide a new, expanded platform for young artists entering the field.