Faculty

Profile

Maya Ciarrocchi is a Canadian American artist whose work excavates vanished and inaccessible histories, themes embedded in her Ashkenazi ancestry and Queer identity. Her previous career as a dancer/choreographer and theatrical designer allowed her to work across disciplines, from site-specific performance to large-scale projections in traditional and experimental theatrical venues. These past experiences inform Ciarrocchi's interdisciplinary studio practice, which includes textiles, alternative-process photography, video, and movement-based performance. By combining personal and historical narratives with spatial and embodied mapping, Ciarrocchi uncovers buried pasts and highlights how these erasures manifest in the present. The resulting two-dimensional, time-based, and performative investigations construct new, fantastical spaces from the residue of loss. 

Her work has been exhibited in New York City, as well as nationally and internationally at galleries, museums and performing arts venues. She has received residencies from Baryshnikov Arts, Bronx Museum of the Arts, LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, MacDowell, and others, as well as grants from the Map Fund, Canada Council for the Arts and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. In addition to her studio practice, Ciarrocchi has created projection designs for dance and theater, including the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical The Band's Visit. Ciarrocchi earned an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA in Dance from Purchase College. Her work is part of the Brookfield Properties collection.

Degrees Held

Master of Fine Art in Computer Art - The School of Visual Arts

Bachelor of Fine Art in Dance - Purchase College

Research Interests

Video Art/Installation, Performance, Social Practice, Identity Politics, Environmental Studies, Fiber Art

Portfolio

Artist Website