About the Artist

Jef Mayz was born in Washington D.C. and spent his childhood in Virginia. He began his arts education studying graphic design at C.V.C.C in Lynchburg, VA. After working for a time as a freelance graphic designer he went on to study painting at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington D. C. before getting his M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has worked as a teacher of painting and drawing and worked for 16 years as a painting conservationist for such institutions as the Philip Guston Estate and the artist Harvey Quaytman. He currently lives and works in New York City with his wife and daughter where his work focuses on the landscape, primarily the local landscape of the city. Working both in the studio and en plein air his work focuses on capturing the effects of light in the natural world. Painting in a loose gestural manner he counts among his major influences artists such as Anders Zorn, George Bellows, Claude Monet, J.M.W. Turner, and Édouard Vuillard. He has been exhibited nationally and his work resides in many public and private collections.

EDUCATION

1996 School of Visual Arts, MFA

1994 Corcoran School of Art and Design, BFA

1989 Central Virginia Community College

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1998 Guggenheim Open Space, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

1992 F.D.I.C. Exhibition Space, Washington D.C.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019 Gallery Grand Opening, Steven Francis Fine Lynchburg, VA

No Rules, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ

2015 Gallery Artists, McKee Gallery, New York, NY

2014 Selfie: An Exhibition on Identity,
Mainsite Contemporary, Norman, OK

2013 Digable Arts Festival, Monroe Center for the Arts,
Hoboken, NJ

30 Spaces Exhibition, Six Summit Gallery,
New York, NY

2010 Inside Out: Portraiture Today, Watchung Arts Center, Watchung, NJ

Focal Resolution-1, Climate Gallery, New York, NY

1997 Seams Work Space, New York, NY

1996 Gallery Artists, SVA Gallery, New York, NY

Jef Mayz and Nicolaus Carcano, SVA Gallery,
New York, NY

Group, Dean Street Field of Operations,
Brooklyn, NY

1994 Selected Artists, Corcoran Museum of Art,
Washington, DC

1993 The Second Coming, M-13 Gallery, Washington, DC

Eighteen Artists, U45 Arts Space, Washington, DC

Open Space, Rock Creek Gallery, Washington, DC

AWARDS

The Ethel Lorraine Bernstein Award for Excellence in Painting

PUBLICATIONS

Kennan Meyer, “A Different Perspective”, CVCC Alumni Magazine, Spring 2006, pg 10 - 11, 17

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

The Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation