Maia Chachava

Maya Chachava was born in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia (former USSR). She received a BFA and Master’s Degree in English Literature and Linguistics from Tbilisi State Institute of Foreign Languages.

Maya always wanted to be an artist, but her dream only came true when she moved to the United States. She earned a BFA in Spanish and Fine Art from CWU and completed an MFA in Painting from the University of Washington in 2000. From 2001-2005 she was an Assistant Professor of Painting at the University of Utah. Mays’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in over 100 juried and invitational shows. Her paintings have been published in Creative Quarterly, Studio Visit, Hot Chocolate, Circle Arts, and New American Paintings to name a few.  She was awarded Artist Trust Grant, Dee Research and Utah Arts Council Fellowships and had solo exhibitions in New York, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Boise, Tbilisi, Vienna, Istanbul and Prague among others.

Maya works with traditional oils and encaustic, along with printmaking and digital formats.

Her work is driven by interests in human relationships, constructed identities and the nature of memory and nostalgia.  In her artist statement she writes: “I trust the inherent properties of the chosen media and rely on many variables along the way. The goal upon entering the studio is to solve visual problems, which is an ongoing challenge that sustains my practice”. Maya is currently a Professor of Art at CWU, where she teaches all levels of Painting.

Courses taught include:

ART 260 - Beginning Painting

ART 360A - Intermediate Painting: Narrative and Representation

ART 360B - Intermediate Painting: Color

ART 360C - Intermediate Painting: Abstraction

ART 460 - Advanced Painting