The position of women, or the feminine, is fundamental to understanding how Maya Goded observes the world and the social relations that organize it. Through her photography, films and video installations, Goded’s approach to the feminine arises from sexuality, gender violence, or by presenting healing women, all from the refusal to submit to the norms established by the concepts of power and control.
From images of marginalized prostitutes in Mexico City, to the infinite landscapes of the desert in Chile, Goded’s work presents contradictions that coexist, revealing hidden existences that fluctuate between intimacy and exposure, between vitality and sterility, between affection and oppression, considering that antagonisms constitute the complexity of inhabiting the world.
In her artistic and personal search, Maya Goded finds in ancestral knowledge, everything that has been attempted to be erased in the macro-narrative of modernity, an alternative to the structures of oppression and violence in contemporary societies. In this sense, and from the feminist perspective that guides Goded’s creation, the artist recovers the figures of the witch and the healer, as social elements of resistance for care. Despite efforts to demonize the female figure, these women continue to defend their territory, their bodies and their knowledge from a non-confrontational place, which spreads in care networks and in gestures of affection.
For more than 20 years, Maya Goded has been interested in gestures and processes of female transgression, whether due to the struggle of sex workers hidden in the middle of Mexico City, or due to the religious and scientific syncretism that leads the practice of healing by healers, mostly indigenous or mestizo, in small rural communities. In this effort, the artist is interested in understanding how alternative projects for the future are articulated that include nature as an axis in healing as opposed to the catastrophe proposed by supposed contemporary socioeconomic development.
Maya Goded, Untitled. From the series “Plaza de la Soledad”. La Merced, México, 1995 
Maya Goded, Untitled, La Merced, México, 1995 
Maya Goded, Untitled. From the series “Plaza de la Soledad”. La Merced, México, 1995 
Maya Goded, Untitled, La Merced, México, 1995 
Maya Goded, Untitled, La Merced, México, 1995
Maya Goded has participated in solo and group exhibitions in various institutions and museums, such as Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain), Museo Amparo (Puebla, Mexico), Casa América (Madrid, Spain), Museo Centro de la Imagen (Mexico City, Mexico), Museum of Photographic Arts (San Diego, United States), Centro Centro (Madrid, Spain), Center for Fine Arts (Brussels, Belgium), Station Museum of Contemporary Art (Houston, United States), Museo Nacional de Arte (Mexico City, Mexico), Pretoria Center and African Museum (Pretoria, South Africa), European Festival for the Arts (Brussels, Belgium), Rotterdam Museum of Art (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Centro de la Imagen (Mexico City, Mexico), California Museum of Photography Riverside (California, United States), Centro Cultural São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico).
Her work belongs to international public and private collections, including the International Center of Photography (ICP – New York, United States), Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC – Mexico City, Mexico), Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M – Móstoles, Spain), Museo Amparo (Puebla, Mexico), Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO – Toronto, Canada), California Museum of Photography (Riverside, United States), Mint Museum (Charlotte, United States), Fototeca del Consejo Mexicano de Fotografía (Mexico City, Mexico), The Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography (Texas, United States), Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel (CIAC – Mexico), Foundation ARPE – Leticia & Stanislas Poniatowski Collection (Switzerland), Colección Anna Gamazo de Abelló (Spain), Margolis Foundation (Tucson, United States), Jean-Louis Larivière Collection (France).
In addition, the artist has been awarded with various international prizes and recognitions, such as: National Geographic Storytelling Fellow (United States), Prince Claus Fund (Netherlands), J. Simon Guggenheim (United States), Eugene Smith (United States), the Medal of Photographic Merit (Mexico) and Fotopresʼ01 from Fundación La Caixa (Spain), among others.
Plaza de la Soledad, her first feature-length documentary, had its international premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and received various awards, such as: the Special Jury Prize at the Festival del Nuevo Cine Iberoamericano (Cuba); the Best Director Award at the Festival Cinema Tropical (United States); the Best Documentary Award at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (Mexico); nominations for the Arieles for documentary feature, first work, editing and music (Mexico); the OCELOT Award for Outstanding Documentary (United States), and the Audience Award at the Derechos Humanos Festival (Argentina).
Latest exhibitions:
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
“Soy mujer que habla con el viento”, MEMORIA, Madrid, 2024. 
MEMORIA at ARCO Madrid 2026 · Booth 7C19 | Showroom