MFA 2026 Artists MFA 2026 Artists: Maya August Palmer

About Maya August Palmer

Maya August Palmer is a painter based in Newport, Rhode Island. Born in Los Angeles, they spent the first half of their childhood in California and the latter half moving throughout New England. They received a BA in Biology from Hofstra University and worked in Neuroscience for a number of years before pursuing an MFA in Painting at UMass Dartmouth. Palmer’s current work is informed by their scientific background and employs the language of realism, as well as human-made and natural clutter, to explore relationships between space and ecology.

Statement

I love the scatter of matter; the trash of everyone. I am interested in liminal ecosystems where the accumulations of discard both organic and inorganic collect. There is presence of a subject even when it is absent – the ghost of us remains with what we leave behind. The cradle to grave of objects, the transformation and transfer of matter and energy, nothing is created or lost just changed. I am drawn to the forgotten or unused parts of a gallery or space floors, corners, back rooms, and awkward places. Like natural selection, I inhabit the niches that have yet to be exploited. Because my subjects are discarded and no longer deemed important for use, I want my work to congregate in spaces along the margins. The correct and ethical uses of land and space in our world is entangled with privilege and power, and is becoming an increasingly important question in the context of the climate, energy usage, housing, agriculture, and private property. I want to think about underutilized and overlooked spaces and how they take on agency and a life of their own. They encroach into our personal space over time, quietly there asserting themselves, always a part of our world and now made seen.

I want my work to not only witness the presence of the overlooked, but to challenge the boundaries of what we consider alive, worthy, or beautiful. In a world increasingly shaped by human discard and interference, I hope to trace new ecologies—intimate, tangled, and quietly defiant—where decay becomes memory and the mundane holds transcendence.

Website: mayapalmer.com