MAYA ERDELYI - mother cake
MAYA ERDELYI
mother cake
May 23 - June 8 2026
opening reception: saturday, may 23 6-8
artist talk with Damien Hoar de Galvan, Thursday, May 28, 6pm
In new exhibition, artist Maya Erdelyi explores the language of rupture and pattern through collage and animation.
Maya Erdelyi: Mother Cake
On view May 23 - June 08, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 23, 6-8pm
Film Screening: Sunday May 24, 11:30am at the Breuer House, Wellfleet
Artist Talk with Damien Hoar de Galvin: Thursday, May 28th 6pm
Farm Projects is pleased to present Mother Cake, a solo exhibition of new work by Boston-based artist Maya Erdelyi, on view May 23 through June 8, 2026. A first-generation American born in New York City to a Colombian-born poet and a Hungarian-Jewish psychologist and refugee, Erdelyi’s multicultural background shapes the worldview reflected in her work, which delves into experiences of motherhood, migration, and the passage of time. The artist writes:
“After college, my curiosity about the world led me to experiences such as learning ice sculpture in the Arctic Circle of Sweden, living in artist squats in Paris and Amsterdam, traveling through India to study Buddhist philosophy and death rituals, teaching art in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and studying ikebana and shibori in Japan. These encounters continue to inform both the stories I tell and the materials and processes I explore.”
The work on view includes drawings, paper quilt collages, and sculptural cut-paper works that move between rupture and tenderness, tracing autobiographical moments through pattern, color, and the poetics of the cut. Across the exhibition, Erdelyi works as a collagist, cutting and assembling printed matter, found imagery, and drawn marks into objects that move between two and three dimensions.
The exhibition draws its title from the word placenta, whose etymology spans Latin (cake), Greek (flat, slab-like), and German (Mutterkuchen, or mother cake). This lineage is reflected in the work's recurring attention to the body, thresholds, and the passage between states. For instance, a central collaged piece in the exhibition, Mother Cake, takes its name directly from the German Mutterkuchen and is characterized by dense color, layered material, and cut surfaces. Similarly, Erdelyi’s Conversation Drawings begin as mono-prints into which laser-cut lines are drawn, opening the surface of the image. Light passes through these incisions, casting shadows that shift with the viewer's position and the conditions of the room while speaking to Erdelyi's own experience with birth.
Additionally, Erdelyi’s Pattern Language series is comprised of paper quilt collages and sculptural constructions developed in parallel with the artist’s film, Anyuka. These works draw on quilts encountered across New England in flea markets, antique shops, and yard sales, engaging the visual and symbolic language of American quilting traditions through cut paper and collage. Together, these bodies of work reflect a practice rooted in collage and hybridity: cutting, sourcing, and colliding images and ideas across media to spark conversation and evoke visceral emotional response.
About the Film Screening (waitlist only)
Sunday May 24, 11:30am
Artist Maya Erdelyi at the Breuer House, Wellfleet \
This event at the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, Breuer House will feature a screening of ANYUKA, (running time: 20 min. 36 sec.) along with two additional animated shorts, Plume (2 min. 9 sec.) and Pareidolia (7 min. 30 sec.).
ANYUKA is a story of a marvelous and tragic life as told across three generations. Interweaving Super 8 family films, archival material and experimental animation, a granddaughter takes a deep dive into the remarkable life of her indomitable grandmother, a writer, WWII refugee and Holocaust survivor. Anyuka (Hungarian for mother) explores intergenerational trauma, the Jewish diaspora, immigration, motherhood, and religious identity, telling the story of a life lived across continents.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the artist, brown bag lunch, and optional drawing game.
Reservations required. Bike, paddle over from Gull Pond landing, or carpool from Farm Projects. To reserve a spot contact Susie at Farm Projects: susie@farmprojectspace.org, 617 650 9800, or stop by.
Presented by Farm Projects with the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
Damien Hoar de Galvan is an artist living and working in Milton, MA. He works mainly in abstract wood sculpture. He received a post-baccalaureate in 2008 from the SMFA Boston and in 2025 was the recipient of the James and Audrey Foster Prize given by the ICA Boston. He has shown widely throughout the United States and Internationally. He is represented by the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown and Gallery NAGA in Boston.
