Maya El Nahal
- Work
- Biography
Born 1991, South London. Based in Scotland since 2009; currently living and working in Glasgow.
Through a process-driven multi-disciplinary practice, Maya connects with the liminal spaces of Spirit and Nature by exploring death as a gateway to Other. Their practice relies on place/encounter, seeking out spiritual, social, and scientific ecologies. By tending to intuited significances they enact rituals for the under-celebrated: spoken story, peat-stained bones, and brain-tanned hide from a beached dead seal pup, glass-studded wax crayons made from an abandoned arsonised motorbike, myrrh-soaked drawings of a roadkilled pigeon. There is a seam of darkness to their practice, a commitment to the chthonic and decayed that seeks to unpick Euro-centric patriarchy’s binarized dogma of hierarchy. Dreaming from the margins and spaces in-between, they believe there is a different future waiting to be built from the composted ashes of dominant culture.
Through a process-driven multi-disciplinary practice, Maya connects with the liminal spaces of Spirit and Nature by exploring death as a gateway to Other. Their practice relies on place/encounter, seeking out spiritual, social, and scientific ecologies. By tending to intuited significances they enact rituals for the under-celebrated: spoken story, peat-stained bones, and brain-tanned hide from a beached dead seal pup, glass-studded wax crayons made from an abandoned arsonised motorbike, myrrh-soaked drawings of a roadkilled pigeon. There is a seam of darkness to their practice, a commitment to the chthonic and decayed that seeks to unpick Euro-centric patriarchy’s binarized dogma of hierarchy. Dreaming from the margins and spaces in-between, they believe there is a different future waiting to be built from the composted ashes of dominant culture.
Education
2017-2021 BA Fine Art (Hons) first class, University of the Highlands & Islands
2010-2014 BSc Biomedical Sciences: Neuroscience (Hons) 2:1, University of Edinburgh
Selected Exhibitions, Prizes, Residencies, and Publications
Sep 2024 Abject Bodies joint exhibition with Ames Truscott, SaltSpace, Glasgow
Aug 2024 ‘Intertidal’, Nature held me close and found no fault with me
Aug 2024 Artist in Residence, Birnam Arts
Jul 2024 Threads SSA open call, Old Gala House
Jul 2024 Rewilding open call, Inverness Botanical Gardens
Jul 2024 ‘Across: The Placenta as Organ of Transecology’, article in issue 4, Metachrosis Literary Magazine
May 2024 Muestra Compuesta group exhibition, VETA, Santiago, Chile
2024 Editorial board for Trans Ecologies Symposium special issue journal
2023-2024 Hospitalfield Graduate Programme
Nov 2023 Correspondences (II) group exhibition, VETA, Santiago, Chile
Apr 2023 Correspondences (I) group exhibition, Art Spot Korin, Kyoto, Japan
Dec 2022 Monochrome and Travel open call exhibitions, Glasgow Gallery of Photography
2022-2023 Lateral Lab graduate prize and Robert Callender International Residency for Young Artists
Aug 2021 ‘Who’s Afraid of the Dark?’, feature article in Art North Magazine
Jun 2020 Imagining an Island open call photography exhibition, Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist
Feb 2020 Overfall joint exhibition with Cara Forbes, Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist
Feb 2020 Second place, Scottish Nature Photography Awards, Student category
Mar 2019 Uncovered Artistry open call exhibition, Glasgow Intersectional Feminist Society
2017-2021 BA Fine Art (Hons) first class, University of the Highlands & Islands
2010-2014 BSc Biomedical Sciences: Neuroscience (Hons) 2:1, University of Edinburgh
Selected Exhibitions, Prizes, Residencies, and Publications
Sep 2024 Abject Bodies joint exhibition with Ames Truscott, SaltSpace, Glasgow
Aug 2024 ‘Intertidal’, Nature held me close and found no fault with me
Aug 2024 Artist in Residence, Birnam Arts
Jul 2024 Threads SSA open call, Old Gala House
Jul 2024 Rewilding open call, Inverness Botanical Gardens
Jul 2024 ‘Across: The Placenta as Organ of Transecology’, article in issue 4, Metachrosis Literary Magazine
May 2024 Muestra Compuesta group exhibition, VETA, Santiago, Chile
2024 Editorial board for Trans Ecologies Symposium special issue journal
2023-2024 Hospitalfield Graduate Programme
Nov 2023 Correspondences (II) group exhibition, VETA, Santiago, Chile
Apr 2023 Correspondences (I) group exhibition, Art Spot Korin, Kyoto, Japan
Dec 2022 Monochrome and Travel open call exhibitions, Glasgow Gallery of Photography
2022-2023 Lateral Lab graduate prize and Robert Callender International Residency for Young Artists
Aug 2021 ‘Who’s Afraid of the Dark?’, feature article in Art North Magazine
Jun 2020 Imagining an Island open call photography exhibition, Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist
Feb 2020 Overfall joint exhibition with Cara Forbes, Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist
Feb 2020 Second place, Scottish Nature Photography Awards, Student category
Mar 2019 Uncovered Artistry open call exhibition, Glasgow Intersectional Feminist Society
- Maya El Nahal
- Latch
- Casting
- Maya El Nahal
- organic
- Casting
- Maya El Nahal
- Seal
- Photography
- Maya El Nahal
- Roadkill series: Pigeon
- Photography
- Maya El Nahal
- Roadkill series: Crow
- Photography
- Maya El Nahal
- Spider
- Assemblage
SHARE THIS PAGE