"My ceramic sculptural work has long stemmed from an abiding interest in natural systems and the physical and historical connections between me, soil, and the makers who came before me. Over the past twenty years, my use of terra sigillata (an ancient Roman ceramic process), is not only a formal aesthetic choice, it is a nod to the long ceramic history in which I am a committed participant.

Since 2017, exhibitions and residencies in Japan have pushed me beyond ceramics into place-based work — out of my studio and into specific locales, making work on-site with found objects, foraged clay, plant fiber, and unfired paper clay. What has emerged is a recognition that I have a nostalgia for meaning in the materials I use, and that I want material histories and place to be visible, tangible, and shareable."

Maria Moyer is an American artist working primarily in ceramic sculpture. Born and educated in Los Angeles, she received her BA, East Asian Studies / Art History, summa cum laude, from UCLA before pursuing studies in sculpture and woodworking at California College of the Arts, image making at the International Center of Photography in New York, and a decade of ceramic sculpture at 122-year-old Greenwich House Pottery also in New York.

Moyer’s work has been exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at The Future Perfect in New York, Parlour Projects Gallery in New Zealand, and multiple exhibitions at Curator’s Cube in Tokyo. Her most recent solo exhibition, Water Tapping On Velvet, opened at Stroll Garden Gallery in Los Angeles in 2026. Her work is held in private collections in Japan, China and the US including those of photographer duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, art philanthropist Daryl Simon, and ICA Boston Trustee Charlotte Wagner.

She has been the recipient of invited residencies in the US and Japan, including artist Kazunori Hamana’s Common / Oppes Residency in Chiba; the Curator’s Cube Residency at the Junzo Yoshimura Residence in Yatsugatake, and is a Fellow of Unlikely Collaborators at Chanel-owned Rudd Estate Winery in Oakville, California. Her work has been written about in Architectural Digest, WSJ Magazine, Wallpaper*, T Magazine, Domino, and Interior Design Magazine, among others. Moyer lives and works in Los Angeles.