Rita Maas is a visual artist working in photography, drawing and printmaking to playfully construct conceptually based imagery. Working within predetermined systems she embraces elements of chance and disorder, often adapting reductive forms. How information is received, filtered and retained are consistent themes in her practice, examining the spaces where slippage occurs.
BIO
Rita Maas recently attended the Virginia Center for Creative Arts Residency and is a 2023 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Printmaking/ Drawing / Book Arts. She has also served as the 2022 Frances Niederer Artist-in-Residence at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA that coincided with a solo exhibition at the Eleanor D Wilson Museum in 2022.
Maas was named a Finalist in The Print Center's 95th Annual in 2020 and was included in the exhibit “Fit to Print” there. Her work was Finalist in the Rhonda Wilson Award and shown in the Annual FRESH 2019 exhibition at KlompChing Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorable Mention from the INFOCUS Sidney Zuber Photography Award and was named “One of the Ten Most Exciting Photographers I Learned about Last Year” by curator Dr. Rebecca Senf.
Her work has been internationally exhibited and is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston TX, The Center for Creative Photography in Tucson AZ, The Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester MA, The Eleanor D Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Roanoke VA and Archive 92.
Maas has recently been working closely with the director and curator at the Hammond Museum in North Salem NY on its exhibition committee and is currently archiving and cataloging their collection created and acquired by the museum’s founder, Natalie Hays Hammond.
Born in New York, Maas received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts. Soon thereafter she opened and managed her own commercial food photography studio collaborating with editorial and advertising clients receiving numerous awards over her decades long career. She later earned her MFA in Visual Arts at Lesley University College of Art and Design.
Maas lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY.