Maya Nicole is a Black self-taught artist based in Brooklyn with roots in Long Island. Maya creates abstract, intuitive mixed-media paintings that explore vulnerability, self-perception, and the transformation of private reflection into shared experience. There are many ways to describe Maya’s work, but she would say, “Ultimately it’s just me”. Maya’s work is brightly colored, layered, tactile, and bold. Like a scavenger hunt, the more you look, the more is revealed. Through intentional use of broken mirror pieces, gemstones, hand-sewn thread, and oil pastels, her visual fingerprints begin to appear. These materials create moments of reflection, fragmentation, adornment, and repair.

Painting becomes Maya’s way of processing emotion through intuition, material, and repetition, transforming internal experiences into something that represents a collective consciousness. Rather than pre-sketching, Maya begins each painting by collecting words, phrases, dreams, and songs on the back of the canvas, forming an emotional archive that preserves subconscious remnants. These fragments are translated into color, texture, and gesture before emerging as paintings. Nude forms and figures confront the internal fear of being seen, inviting viewers to consider their own relationships with vulnerability, shame, and permission. Broken mirror fragments invite fractured perspectives and repeated acts of looking. These moments create tensions that make the art as emotional as it is tactile.

Before she knew what it meant to be an artist, she knew to ask for an easel, canvas, and paint. At the end of home exhibitions, she’d always ask, “What do you see?” This question would evolve to be the same motivation for her work today.