Christa Maiwald

Christa Maiwald moved to New York in 1973, where she established herself as a video artist with solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Anthology Film Archives, Holly Solomon Gallery, and Franklin Furnace, among others, and was included in the 1979 Whitney Biennial. As an artist, Maiwald has worked in many mediums, including painting, sculpture, installations, and, since 2000, hand embroidery, video, and photography.

For six years, Maiwald has also worked part-time as a baker, and that has sifted into her art. Her Landscape Cakes series consists of digital photographs, neither retouched nor digitally altered—the cakes and all components, including vases and flowers, are edible. In the Born to Serve series of hand embroideries, Maiwald reflects on her lifelong observation of cats and how they can turn from domesticated pets to feral animals—and how the same duality can be applied to humans. Hunting, stalking, and killing are at the violent end of the spectrum; playing, ignoring, and cuddling are at the other. Curiosity leads to both realms of behavior.

In addition to a one-artist exhibition at Guild Hall Museum in 2013, her embroideries and photographs have been shown in solo and group shows internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Arts & Design, the Lulea Sommar Biennal in Lulea, Sweden, Galerie Houg in Lyon, France, the Parrish Art Museum, the Heckscher Museum of Art, the Islip Art Museum, the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University, Newark, and galleries and art fairs in the U.S. and abroad. She has received three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, CAPS, and Change, Inc., and she has had residencies at ZBS Foundation and the Synapse Video Center at Syracuse University.

Courtesy of the Artist