Mara Held is known for energetic yet delicate paintings on linen and paper depicting lyrical organic forms in vibrant colours. She uses intricately cut stencils for some patterns that evoke varied sources from plant life growing on ancient forest floors or pelagic forms found in coral reefs to Japanese woodcuts and psychedelic posters. Held’s preferred medium is egg tempera, a painstaking technique mastered by Renaissance painters. Enamoured by the light inherent in the medium, she made it her practice.
Mara Held was born in 1954 in New York. In her early 20s, Held lived in the highlands of Guatemala studying the art and ancient language of the Quiché people. Her studio is located on an old dairy farm in the picturesque Hudson Valley that has been in her family since the 1960s.
Held's work is collected by institutions both in the US and internationally, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New York Public Library; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Cleveland Museum of Art; The International Artists' Museum, Tel Aviv; and Phillips Collection in Washington, DC.
Read Mara Held's interview