Join us at Themes+Projects for the opening night of Scenes from the Sun by Maia Flore.

Artist Statement

“If we opened people up, we’d find landscapes” - Agnes Varda. 

In Maia Flore earlier bodies of work from Northern Europe, there’s a sense of a playful color-coded whimsicality where you can’t pinpoint the place of residence of the characters. In this series, Scenes from the Sun, her subject has at times fully fledged from that playfulness into one where the surroundings are holding the figure peacefully and California sun is as important as the figure; a symbiotic couple at play. There’s a generous space that she holds for these places that are not her original home, but rather places that she has allowed to become more than temporary residence. 

Over the years Flore has stepped out of the studio and is now completely emerged with nature around her. The narrative performance elements seen in Vénus and Espace croisé, are now the primary story within the images, versus digital reconstructions, and they are staggering. It’s as if she outgrew the safety and predictability inside a studio. She lays all her trust in herself, knowledge of the nature, the sun and own shadow. Flore has found an alternative universe where play is an ageless law, and the figures are one with nature.