ARTIST BIO
Maya Keleris is a Halifax-based painter and printmaker. Born and raised in Toronto, Maya’s work is centred around her love of both playing and watching sports, which she gained growing up in a deeply sports-centred family and city. Her large-scale paintings depict iconic moments in Canadian sport, such as Jose Bautista’s bat flip or Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer beater, embracing the noise, chaos, and unity that came from watching these moments. Maya’s print work moves away from the buzz of the crowd and instead focuses on the quieter expressions of love and care that are shared through sport, seen in the hours shared by parent and child on the way to or from practices and games, and woven into every skate or cleat lace that couldn’t be tied without help. Her work unpacks the emotions of experiencing these moments, large or small, in person or through a screen.
EDUCATION
NSCAD University, B.A. Art History & B.F.A. Interdisciplinary Art, 2024
EXHIBITIONS
2024 SAME AS IT EVER WAS, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada (co-curator with Emily Flinn)
2024 A Lack of Visible Mess, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada (co-curator with Abigail Clapper)
2024 Matrix, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2024 Keeping Score, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2023 Not So Mini, Alberta Printmakers Gallery, Calgary, AB, Canada
2023 The Echo Chamber, House Show, Halifax, NS, Canada
2023 Dreamhouse, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2023 Flower Painting, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2023 the barnyard, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada (co-curator with Emily Flinn)
2023 Crossing Time Zones: Emerging Artists, Sino-Canada Alliance of Arts and Culture, online
2022 Watch Your Eyes, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2022 Selections From The 9INHANDPRESS 2022 Seventh Annual Print Exchange, St. Louis Artists’ Guild’s Ramp Gallery, St. Louis, MO, USA
2022 Women [Only], BROUHAHA Art Gallery, online
2022 NSCAD Print, Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada
2021 Atlantic BFA Exhibition, Inverness County Centre for the Arts, Inverness, NS, Canada
2021 On the Edge, Federation of Canadian Artists, online
2019 Pebeo Mixed Media Exhibition, Menier Gallery, London, England
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS
2023 Nova Scotia Talent Trust 2023 Fall/Winter Scholarship Recipient
2019 North America Pebeo Mixed Media Art Prize Winner