“Maea’s artistic practice sparks deep connections with her ancestry, community, and the future.” – Juror Daniela Lieja Quintanar, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Programs, REDCAT.

Maria Maea is the 2023 Capital Group Artadia Award recipient.

Maria Maea (b. 1988)  is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation,  performance and sound. Through her art practice, she deepens her connection to ancestry and collective memory. Maea’s work has recently been exhibited in the Orange County Museum of Art’s California Biennial, Palm Springs Art Museum, La Pau Gallery and Oxy Arts. Maea’s work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Cultured Mag.

Maea works in sculpture, sound and performance. As a LA-native and a first generation Mexican-Samoan artist, she investigates her relationship to LA as home. She uses palms from the greater LA area to build sculptures that play in the space between figurative and abstraction. These sculptures Maea calls future ancestors are made from concrete, rebar, living & dead plants. The work seeks to complicate art’s relationship with institutions around ideas of contamination and preservation. Many works structurally contain seed pods that over time will crumble to dust, however the seed will remain – making the artworks multi-generational.