Maria Maea weaves collective and somatic histories with transcultural experiences in her art, using organic and locally found materials. In her presentation, Prima Materia, at Secret Asian Man, Maea sources palm fronds from the greater Los Angeles to create installations referencing myth-making, ancestral knowledge, and lived experiences as a first generation Angeleno of Samoan and Mexican heritage.

Occupying the center of the gallery, a lioness composed of woven palms, cardboard, steel, and papier mâché commands attention with eyes made of green seashells. She is framed within an arch made up of wrought iron gate panels. Her body, open and positioned in a mid-leap, asserts power but also, a sense of playfulness that embodies the alchemical lion, also known as the green lion devouring the sun. The alchemical lion, a medieval symbol that represents raw, primordial, untamed natural forces, signifies the spiritual process of dissolving impurities and chemical dissolution to achieve a higher state of consciousness. Later adapted by psychotherapist, Carl Gustav Jung, the alchemical lion became a metaphor for the psychological process of becoming whole through self realization.

The lioness, titled shadow, acts as an integral structure to canopy an iron bench below which pays homage to the Filipino peacock chair, traditionally made of woven rattan or bamboo. Most notably, the image taken by Blair Stapp of Black Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton sitting on a peacock chair is a visual and historical connection to the shared cultural relevance of the seating style. The fence panels used on the bench, featuring ornamental wrought iron s-curve designs reference vegetal motifs but also the precedent and influence that formerly enslaved peoples have brought to the American landscape. Black metalworkers used traditional African symbolism in wrought iron architecture for protection and security representing a cultural resilience for survival and an innate subversion to colonial occupation. Maea layers these shared cultural moments and histories to produce fragmented and nonlinear narratives that actively work against Western hegemony. All whilst preserving and empowering indigenous knowledge, pointedly questioning systems of land stewardship, and the commodification of the spirit through forced labor and violence.

Suspended in the doorway, center of everything, consists of a halo of thorns framing a set of eyes carved into a slab of live edge wood. The work characterizes the sun, a rational and conscious force casting its light and clarity upon the lioness piece, shadow, and guides the viewer to the work, animus. A collection of feathers, bells, wire, and found objects, animus, holds kinetic energy that in Jungian psychology embodies the feminine aspects of logic, rationality, assertiveness, and spirit. The composition of blue and white feathers entangled in a flurry of armature wire, sweet pea pods, bells, and charms cascade together in kinship. The sweet pea pods suspended throughout nod to Maea’s practice rooted in natural life-cycles and aspects of propagation. Through the inevitable decay of the seed pod casing, seeds are left behind, initiating the next phase of life and growth. Her integration of both living and dead plant matter goes hand in hand with working against Western understandings of temporality and challenging the institutional impulse for preservation and containment.

persona, an assemblage of feathers, bells, palm leaves, and beeswax, is a figural woven sculpture nodding towards the Greek myth of Icarus, a story of hubris and pushing beyond natural thresholds leading to self-led destruction. In Jung-ian conceptions of psychicalchemy, “persona” is one’s out-facing mask unreflective of the whole self. In order to achieve individuation, incorporating both persona and shadow is integral for reaching authenticity. Shadow constitutes the unconscious parts of the personality including weaknesses, jealousy, instincts, desires, and traits that are suppressed. Cascading rivulets of melted beeswax are scattered across the torso of the sculpture, its woven palm wings, and on the individual feathers placed throughout the work, reminding us of persona, the ecstasy of flight, and prima materia (Latin for “first matter”). Interpreted as the unconscious mind in its raw, primordial, base-state, Prima materia is the chaotic substance from which new things can emerge. This body of work engages in the whole Jungian cycle of utilizing both persona and shadow, and confronting the process of devouring the Sun in dissolution to achieve a wholly balanced psyche. Maea offers these interactions between her works as a reflection of self in a constant cycle of becoming. The works interact as iterations of power, passion, pride, ego, and the fluidity of consciousness towards the development of self. The tension that Maea yields through her practice is the confluence of the personal and the collective striding towards a nonlinear honoring of nature, ancestors, and storytelling.

—Audrey Bùi

Maria Maea (b. 1988, Long Beach; lives and works in Long Beach) is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, performance, film, and sound. Selected solo exhibitions have been held at Commonwealth and Council (2026); Long Beach City College (2026); Murmurs, Los Angeles (2022); and La Pau Gallery, Los Angeles (2021). Selected group exhibitions have been held at Nevada Museum of Art, Reno (2025); Los Angeles Craft Contemporary (2025); The Brick, Los Angeles (2024); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); Lisson Gallery, New York (2023); Orange County Museum of Art (2022); Palm Springs Art Museum (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson (2021); and OXY ARTS, Los Angeles (2020). Maea is a recipient of the Latinx Artist Fellowship (2024), California Community Fund Fellowship (2024), Artadia Los Angeles Fellowship (2023), and Mohn LAND Fellowship (2023). Maea has participated in residencies at Parallel Oaxaca (2025); Denniston Hill, Woodbridge (2024); VETA Galeria, Madrid (2023); and Palm Springs Art Museum (2022).

Maea’s work is in the collections of Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA (MAC3) and Museum of Us, San Diego.