Maya Freelon

Maya Freelon is an award-winning visual artist and educator whose work has been exhibited internationally, including shows in Paris, Jamaica, Madagascar, and Italy. Cosmopolitan Magazine called her "one of the most badass female artists in the biz”. Huffington Post hailed Maya as one of "30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know"; and Complex Magazine celebrated her “Making Waves in the Art World." Her artwork was featured on the cover of Walter Magazine and in books Art of the State and Garden & Gun’s Southern Women.

Freelon’s artwork has been commissioned and collected by the National Gallery of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Phyllis and Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art, as well as major corporations and universities including Google, Cadillac, Duke Hospital, Johns Hopkins University and First Citizens Bank. Her monumental tissue paper sculpture, created for Halcyon, was displayed at the  Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building. Miami New Times selected her as one of “Five Young Artists to Watch During Miami Art Week 2019” and her unique tissue paper art was praised by the International Review of African American Art as "a vibrant, beating assemblage of color." 

Freelon has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia, Queenspace in NYC, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Art on the Vine in Martha’s Vineyard and the Korobitey Institute in Ghana. She earned a BA from Lafayette College in 2005 and an MFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2007.

Select Collections

U.S. State Department, U.S. Embassy in Madagascar; U.S. Embassy Swaziland; U.S. Embassy Rome; Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; First Citizens Bank; Duke University; The University of Maryland (David C. Driskell Center); The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists; The Reginald F. Lewis Museum; The School of the Museum of Fine Arts; The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Lafayette College; The Brandywine Workshop; The Experimental Printmaking Institute; The Williston Northampton School; The Kokrobitey Institute; Lewis Tanner Moore; Dr. Maya Angelou.