Artist Bio
Based in the SF Bay Area [Chochenyo Ohlone Lands], Maya Chan [she/they] is an interdisciplinary, multimedia artist who works in digital photography, photo-collage, performance, & film. Chan graduated cum laude from the University of California Berkeley with a dual degree in Ethnic Studies & Art Practice in 2021.
Artist Statement
In her multi-disciplinary artistic practice, Maya Faith Chan’s performance and photography-based work are meditations upon the spirit/body’s relationship to maternal ancestral systems of harm, trauma, survival, mutual aid, love, and knowledge-keeping. Exploring Cantonese-Filipinx diasporic hxstories, intergenerational memory, and traditional knowledge systems of healing, Chan’s work brings to light the ways in which the inherited baggage, memories, trauma, and wisdom of our ancestors, transcend time and shape the personal, political, psychological state of our lives. Drawing from syncretic Taoist and non-western cosmologies, Chan’s artwork speaks to the spirit/body’s connection to our ancestors, the more than human world, the cosmos, and this earth.
curriculum vitae
Education
2016-2018
Diablo Valley College || Associates in Studio Arts
2018-2021
UC Berkeley || Bachelors of Arts in Ethnic Studies & Art Practice
Exhibitions
2018
15th anniversary CCACA Ceramic Arts Conference, Davis CA
"re-imagined" Worth Ryder Gallery, Berkeley, C
2019
"EVE: Empowerment vs. Exploitation," Tea Roots Gallery, Oakland, CA
"APAture 2019: DECLARE," Kearny Street Workshop, San Francisco CA
2021
SMARTBOMB VHS Episode 5, Oakland, CA
2022
Half/Light, Southern Exposure, San Francisco CA
Select Work
2022-Present | Youth Arts Program Coordinator, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco Generation Chinatown: Youth Artists-in-Residence Program | 41 Ross
2022 | Mission Voices Speaks: Summer Teaching Artist, Southern Exposure
2019 - 2022 | Studio Assistant, UC Berkeley Art Practice (KACH Studio)
2020 - 2021 | Social Media Manager, Mask Oakland
2020 - 2021 | Social Media Manager, Wiesenfeld Visiting Artist Lecture Series
2019 - 2020 | UC Berkeley Art Practice, Studio Manager,
2019-2020 | UC Berkeley ResLife, Residential Assistant,
2019-2020 | UC Berkeley Art Practice, QTBIPOC Mural Painting DeCal Instructor
2019-2020 | UC Berkeley Art Practice, Diversity & Inclusion Committee Co-Facilitator
2019-2020 | UC Berkeley Studio Nights, Community Arts Program Director
2019-2020 | And Friends SF Music Festival , Creative Direction & Event Coordinator
2018-2019 | Mask Oakland, Volunteer & Coordination
2019 | "The Otherwise" Anthropology Research Journal, Graphic Design
Awards
2020
Honors Studio Fellow - UC Berkeley Art Department