Exposition « Envergure(s) – Wingspan(s) » de Maya Hayuk

Through symmetry disrupted by drips, Maya explores the gesture, softening it to form waves, curves, organic, moving shapes. The vitality of her work is also reflected in the different textures, the transparency of certain hues, and those colors that bleed, like an excess of energy, an overflowing vital flux. Her works, like an image unfolded along a symmetrical axis, mobilize vibrant colors, lively, supple forms that overlap and respond to each other on either side of the painting.

The influence of modernist abstraction, in a contemporary urban version, blends with inspiration found in Ukrainian folk art patterns, repeated and structured like a weaving. Her iconic improvised murals bear witness to the artist's obsession with symmetry, "perfect imperfection", puzzles, and exterior/interior space, while evoking woven, knitted, and embroidered works re-proportioned to a monumental scale. Maya Hayuk's vibrant painterly abstractions are inspired by various references to Ukrainian Easter eggs, Mexican woven blankets, mandalas, and other references drawn from kinetic art.

Who is Maya Hayuk?

Born in 1969 in Baltimore to Ukrainian refugee parents, Maya Hayuk lives in Brooklyn, New York. A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she also studied at the University of Odessa in Ukraine. Her highly recognizable work draws inspiration from textile traditions and weaves bonds between Ukrainian folklore and the strong colorimetric language of urban art. Her large structures, composed of wide intersecting bands of color, are inspired by Ukrainian folk art designs (Pysankas), mandalas, Hubble Space Telescope views, holograms, and Rorschach tests.

A painter, muralist, photographer, graphic designer, gallerist, environmentalist, and author, Maya has always collaborated with other artists; she has produced album covers, videos, stage sets, photographs, and posters for M.I.A., TV on the Radio, or the Beastie Boys, among others. Maya Hayuk has exhibited and created monumental in situ painterly interventions worldwide, which have become iconic, appearing as sensitive cartographies articulating a tension between control and chance.

An exhibition by Maya Hayuk | Curatorship: Elise Herszkowicz / Art Azoï ; Credits: Maya Hayuk

Joint work between Art Azoï and Carré de Baudouin

For this first solo exhibition in France, Carré de Baudouin and Art Azoï offer artist Maya Hayuk the opportunity to create the majority of her works in situ. The exhibition will benefit from substantial installation time so that the artist can engage in contextual work inspired by the territory in which it is presented as well as the two months she spent in Ukraine this summer. Maya explores many mediums — paper, textiles, video, among others — enabling her to sculpt her various geometric and symmetrical abstractions as she pleases. She will present a 30-year retrospective of studio painting through works loaned by her longtime gallerist in Brussels, Alice Gallery. She will also address her commitment to Ukraine, her work of resistance and exploration of her country of origin through embroidery as well as video and the Ukrainian language.

The immersive character of her propositions will integrate into the characteristic and monumental spaces of Carré de Baudouin, allowing her to create "cathedral" works.

Did you know?

Since 2011, the Art Azoï association has worked for the promotion and dissemination of artistic creation in the public space, leading major cultural projects in close connection with the territories in which it operates, alongside French and international artists. The association aims to foster contemporary creation and structure its production to support artists on often multidisciplinary in situ projects: exhibitions, temporary and permanent installations, programming walls, cultural events.

A space for encounters and exchange, Carré de Baudouin is a cultural center managed by the town hall of the 20th arrondissement that champions contemporary creation in all its forms. Set in a former eighteenth-century folly, it today houses exhibition rooms as well as an auditorium, nestled within a leafy green setting. Open to all audiences and free of charge, Carré de Baudouin offers exhibitions, organizes events, and regularly develops projects with local organizations. Each year, two to three exhibitions are organized with special focus on current artistic creation. Around each exhibition, a free program is designed and offered in collaboration with artists and curators: guided tours, artist encounters, art workshops… Listed as a historical monument in 1928, the building has successively been a holiday resort, an orphanage, a medical-social center, a young workers' hostel, and today a cultural center.