Biography

Maya Skarzenski is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and designer based in Toronto, Canada. She earned her BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University, where she was awarded the Mrs. W. O. Forsyth Award. Her work has been featured in galleries and conferences across Canada, both through juried and solo exhibitions. She currently works as a freelance User Experience Designer, having completed a bootcamp at BrainStation. Drawing from her diverse skills and domains, she creates projects that are compassionate and human-centred.

Notable projects include exhibiting at “The Exchange: Conversations to Inspire Change with Samantha Bee” for International Women’s Day; curating for “Together Apart”, an international arts festival; and building the website for “Exuberant”, a jewellery designer currently exhibiting at New York Fashion Week.

Maya is also an organizer at Long Winter Toronto, where she puts all her skills to use by coordinating arts and music events.

Artist Statement

Much of Skarzenski's work comes from her fascination with the body’s connection and disconnection with the self. She is interested in how our bodies manifest the self and how art mimics the body in this way. The diversity of her work is brought together in harmony as it is thematically and visually similar. Soft-sculptures, satin paintings, and macro photography are the foundations of her practice but her love of each medium allows her to continuously expand her repertoire. She uses her own emotional responses to guide themes in her work. Uncertainty and ambivalence become fuel for her art production.