Maria Maher Draws Power From the Sun in Her Latest Exhibit

Egypt-based Cuban-American artist Maria Maher cries easily. Paintings, memories (happy and sad), the sight of any of her three cats and palm trees have often brought her to tears. Luckily,  she paints with oil because to her, it is exactly that sensitive emotionality that she draws power from.

Maher has been in Egypt for ten years, during which she has produced a diverse body of work - every corner in her home, not just her studio, is stacked with paintings she’s made. “Egypt is very rich with art,” she tells CairoScene, “Everything here inspires me - especially nature. I am constantly inspired by flowers, palm trees, and the sun.”

Perhaps because her subject matter is vast - read: the sun - Maher works on canvases taller than her. She has to stand on chairs to reach the top corners. “When I started work, after graduating, I worked with the government to design the interior of aeroplane hangars. They’re big spaces, and it’s a big task,” Maher tells us. I ask her if she thinks that has anything to do with the size of her canvases. It’s not something she’s considered.

“I paint on large canvases because I’m a little person. I think, somehow, it shows strength,” Maher clarifies, “It makes me feel bigger.”

Besides the elements, Maher is also deeply inspired by women. She often finds herself sketching feminine figures, whom she refers to as her ‘goddesses’. “I think I often paint women because, simply, I’m a woman. I love women, and I think they’re all very beautiful, but recently, I’ve been trying to learn how to paint uglier women. I think there’s power in that. But I’m struggling to.”

In her studio, a small room with French windows on the second floor of her home, Maher is surrounded by three large paintings - big enough to hide behind - she is working on simultaneously. “I use a lot of paint, so I work on multiple paintings at the same time. I often find myself wanting to do something else, so I do different things at the same time. It depends on how I feel, and what the painting tells me.”

A lot of the decisions Maher makes regarding her artistic process seem like they came sporadically. In context, they seem only natural. She doesn’t use brushes; instead, she reaches for palette knives and squeegees. “I paint a lot, and brushes are really hard to clean. So I just started using these, because I could just wipe the paint off with tissue paper, and it’s clean. I was just being practical.” In the studio, Maher later tells us she gravitates towards straight, clean lines, which are easier to achieve with her chosen tools. 

Maher tells me the studio is where she spends most of her time, either painting, reading Basquiat to learn how to make her subjects uglier, or simply hanging out with her cats by the windowsill. 

Despite an enormous body of work, grown over decades of painting, Maher has only exhibited her work once - in an exhibition at the Cairo Opera House held in the late 1990s. ‘Empowered by Shams’ is on view starting Tuesday, March 31st, at New Cairo’s Maison69 until April 5th.