MaiYap

MaiYap is a multidisciplinary Panamanian-born artist of Chinese descent. After Hurricane Andrew and the birth of her daughter in 1992, she discovered painting as a way to speak about her experiences and navigate change, developing her own visual language through innovative materials. Her work explores memory, identity, and transformation, integrating tradition and contemporaneity. She paints exclusively with palette knives and incorporates everyday objects from her multicultural background to explore her roots, highlighting the strength of family bonds, discrimination against Asians, and reproductive justice.

She has received major recognitions such as the Green Space Miami Award 2024 and has presented solo exhibitions in international institutions, including: A House of Small Altars” at Edge Zones Miami, Florida (2026), Sustrato at the Municipal Museum of Cartago, Costa Rica (2024); Eco-Aesthetics in Motion at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, Florida (2024); Génesis at the Favalora Museum of St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida (2022); and Progenie at the GAC Motor Gallery, Panama (2022).

Between 2007 and 2022, she taught multiple art courses at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. Since 2013, she has been the founder and director of Palette Knife Artists of Miami, a collective dedicated to promoting the use of the palette knife and raising environmental awareness through art. Since 2024, MaiYap assumed the volunteer position of curator at Biscayne National Park Dante Fascell Visitors Center’s art gallery.

MaiYap earned her degree in Advertising and Graphic Design from the University of Georgia. She currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.