Bio
Maya Sumile graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art from James Madison University in the spring of 2025. She will be attending American University to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art in the fall of 2025. In moving between disciplines, she creates mystical work that gives visual representation to the stories that fill silences.
Sumile researches and integrates symbolism across cultures, rooted in her mixed ethnicities with family from Hawaii and Nova Scotia. She combines themes that contradict each other to create enigmatic narratives. This is in an effort to challenge the way the viewer finds meaning in her work. Her work is influenced by the representation of the human condition in Romanticism, especially referencing Henry Fuseli and Théodore Géricault. A lot of Sumile’s work has ties to Gothic literature, namely Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, which inform her use of symbolism, forms, and light to emulate the uncanny nature of her stories.
Artist Statement
In my work, I use multiple disciplines to investigate the formulation of identity. Through the introspection involved in self portraiture, I sort through the worst parts of myself and humanity in order to create work that balances dread and serenity. With the incorporation of imagery from old stories and my nightmares, I create objects and environments that exist in between the tangible and intangible theories of human existence that have been explored for centuries.
Maya Sumile’s Studio 