MAYA MARTIN-WESTHEIMER
Maya is a curator, researcher, and writer whose practice engages with socially engaged art, ecological storytelling, and cultural histories. Co-founder and creative director of Floorplan Studio, Maya develops exhibitions and programs and projects that foreground creative storytelling to nurture empathy, dialogue, and ecological awareness. Her collaborative approach responds to the complexities and urgencies of our present moment, advocating art as integral to deepening connections between people, place, and environment.
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Maya lives and works on Bidjigal, Birrabiragal, and Gadigal land. She pays respect to the Custodians of the land and waters and honours their enduring relationship with Country. Projects
ROCKPOOL RESIDENCY
Rockpool Residency: Unseen Worlds is a collaborative site-responsive project with artists, scientists, ecologists, and First Nations perspectives. It fosters a deeper connection to place, celebrating intertidal ecosystems and the cultural significance of the land.
Rockpool Residency is proudly supported by Create NSW, Woollahra Municipal Council and Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf.
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FLOORPLAN STUDIO
Rockpool Residency: Unseen Worlds is a collaborative project engaging with artists, scientists, ecologists, and perspectives from First Nations Australians. The project aspires to a more connected and collective sense of place. It celebrates unique intertidal and broader ecologies and the enduring cultural significance of the land.
Read moreCo-Founder/Director
Project—2024
ROCKPOOL RESIDENCIES AND REWEAVING PLACE-BASED CARE
Under the theme ‘Appetite’ Article I
Rockpool Residencies and Reweaving Place-Based Care
Writer/Researcher
Journal Article—2025
PLANT HUMANITIES: THEORY, ART AND THE BOTANIC GAZE
Part of an upcoming Bloomsbury publication, Maya co-authored a chapter with Dr. Prudence Gibson exploring the dark botanical history of the Ginkgo Biloba tree.
Writer/Researcher
Book Chapter—2024-25
ROCKPOOL RESIDENCY: FIELD GUIDE
The Floorplan Fieldguide is a curated exploration of ecology around eastern suburbs of Sydney, identifying native birds, saline habitats, and coastal flora. Combining art and ecology, it offers a creative and educational lense into the unique biodiversity of the area, encouraging deeper engagement with the natural environment.Writer/Researcher
Self-Published—2024
COOL CHANGE (IN THE MIDDLE OF A HEATWAVE)
Cool Change (in the Middle of a Heatwave) was a multidisciplinary experimental exhibition and creative discussion framed the changing cultural and geographical landscapes within Australia. The broad curatorial theme traverse’s deep ecology, effects of anthropogenic degradation, decolonial narratives, relationship to country & tensions between old and new.
Read moreProducer/Curator
Exhibition—2023
PHANTOM HISTORIES - LUCILLE MARTIN
Ongoing curatorial collaboration with Lucille Martin on the Phantom Histories project. Recently participated in the Friche la Belle de Mai Artist Residency in Marseille, France, as an invited collaborator of Lucille Martin.
Curator/researcher 2024-ongoing
ARTIST RESIDENCY - WOOLLAHRA GALLERY AT REDLEAF
During her Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, Maya delved deeper into her research on the intertidal ecologies and history of Burroway/Moring/the Vaucluse foreshore, with a particular focus on Nielsen Park. For the past three years, she has been investigating and documenting the intertidal zones surrounding the park, observing the lives of its unique non-human inhabitants, and studying the complex interrelationships within these ecosystems. Maya hosted open studios and actively collaborated with diverse partners throughout the residency.
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Artist/Curator
Residency—2023
PROGRAMMING
Maya has developed programs for diverse audiences and settings, engaging communities through curated events.
Coming soonProgramming - ongoing
COMFORT IN CHAOS
Comfort in Chaos was a group exhibition failitated by Floorplan Studio, held in March 2022 at Abstract Thoughts Gallery, Darlinghurst. Featuring Maya Barnstone, Zoe Baumgartner, Peter Bloor, Marianna Ebersoll, Dylan Newling, and Mia Rankin, the exhibition navigated creative responses to uncertainty through sculpture, painting, ceramics, design, and digital media. A performance night and artist talk expanded on themes of connection, and creative resilience
Coming soonCurator
2022
RIGHT FIRE - LUCILLE MARTIN
RIGHT FIRE is an exhibition of large format photographic work by contemporary artist Lucille Martin. Comprising photographic documentation captured between 2018 and 2021, RIGHT FIRE* explores the revival of ‘good fire’ practices held on Gumea Dharawal Country.
Curator/Researcher
2020-2022