Maya Love (she/her, Pakeha) is a writer, art historian, and communications specialist based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. She’s the creature lurking behind d_composition.

She is currently working on her PhD, which explores the corpse in contemporary art, within the Art History department at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. In her professional life, she has worked in a variety of arts and education settings, as well as in marketing, events, copywriting, and production.

Alongside her studies, she regularly adds to her writing portfolio. Maya has written for Artzone, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, Foenander Gallery, The Art Paper, Broadsheet, Webb’s, Sanderson Contemporary, the Govett-Brewster Gallery, and more. A selection of her writing is available here.

  • Doctor of Philosophy / Art History
    Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
    Estimated completion 2025

    Maya’s research explores the affective power of the corpse in contemporary art (1990–present). Led by a fusion of cognitive and affective frameworks, she seeks a phenomenology of the post-humous body in case studies including works by Sally Mann, Matsui Fuyoko, Christine Borland, Iann An, Peng Yu, and Teresa Margolles.

    Bachelor of Arts (Honours) / Art History
    First Class Honours
    Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
    2019

    First in course: MUS704, ARTHIS790

    Maya’s BA (Hons) dissertation won the Adrienne Jarvis Prize in Art History (2019). This research, titled Corporeal Encounters, offered a phenomenological investigation of the corpse across select works by American photographer, Sally Mann, and Mexican interdisciplinary artist, Teresa Margolles. Corporeal Encounters has since been accessioned into the EH McCormick Library collection.

    Bachelor of Arts / Art History
    Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland
    2015 – 2018

    First in course: ARTHIS334

  • Maya is good with people, prose, and planning. Key skills include: copywriting, social media, stakeholder management, project management, research, and editing.

    Previous experience includes:

    Graduate Teaching Assistant
    University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau
    Art History 230/332: Art Crime (S1 2023)
    Art History 115/G (S2 2023)

    Membership – Special Projects
    Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki
    2022

    Membership Coordinator
    Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki
    2019–2022

    Marketing Assistant
    University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau
    2019

  • Panellist
    AAANZ23, Gold Coast, Australia
    It’s alive: the corpse as a “teeming presence” in contemporary art
    December 2023

    Guest lecturer
    University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau
    Art History 114/G
    ”Pop Art” and “Conceptual Art”
    2023

    Presenter
    University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau
    Art History Department Pecha Kucha
    Decomposition: the corpse in contemporary art
    October 2022

    Presenter
    Grave Matters: Imaging the dead, Online
    The corpse in contemporary art
    April 2022

  • New Zealand Art History Teachers Association
    Pop, whaam, honk! The effervescence of Pop Art
    November 2023

    Webb’s Select
    Art in Aotearoa: A brief history
    June 2023

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