Maya Strauss is an interdisciplinary painter whose work spans painting and sculpture, drawing from images she gathers while wandering New York City. She began working in ceramics as a way to “sketch” and improvise ideas that emerge in her paintings. Focusing on seemingly banal objects - wine bottles, cups, lost luggage, greeting cards - Strauss infuses the familiar with humor and playfulness while revealing its underlying strangeness. Though not strictly utilitarian, her objects operate as a form of sympathetic magic: creating likenesses to attract or ward off certain energies. Each piece becomes an attempt to preserve a fleeting, often overlooked moment of beauty. Influenced by the ceramics community, Strauss is also committed to making accessible, everyday objects that invite people to live with art.

Maya Strauss lives in Alphabet City in Manhattan and has a studio in Gowanus, Brooklyn. She received a BFA from The Cooper Union, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art. Strauss has attended multiple residencies including the Vermont Studio Center, the Byrdcliffe Guild, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. She has been included in art exhibitions at Studio e Gallery in Seattle, Warbling Collective in London, and MoMa PS1 in Queens, New York. She has had solo exhibitions at Bob’s Gallery and Sweet Lorraine Gallery, both in Brooklyn, and she has shown at the NADA Ceramics market for two years running. Strauss’ various jobs in bookstores, toy stores and libraries have had a profound effect on her work. These experiences have led her to collaborations with artists, writers and musicians on books, performances, community engagements and exhibitions. In 2021, She made a cover design and fifty limited edition hand-painted covers for “To the Cold Heart” written by Clark Coolidge and published by Fenrick Books.