THE ARMORY SHOW 2026

MaryKate Maher

Opening Reception: September 24

September 24 - 27

KALINER is pleased to present: MaryKate Maher’s solo presentation of recent collage and sculpture that expands the artist’s novel approach to material and process.

In this body of work, MaryKate Maher draws inspiration from Inuit archaeological artifacts—small, hand-held sculptural maps once used to navigate the Arctic coastline and its islands. These carved wooden objects, often tooth-like in shape, trace walking paths through grooves meant to be felt under the thumb as much as seen with the eye. Never truly complete, these maps shift alongside the everchanging terrain, as ice melts and seas freeze, echoing the impermanence of the land itself.

Maher’s current work builds on this concept of mapping the intangible—charting spaces that resist being fixed or fully seen. She explores a paradox: the shadow or the void is both presence and absence, something that exists and eludes at once.

“How do you understand a space that is intangible yet visible?” asks MaryKate Maher. “As an artist I work to give that intangibility a form: tracing an outline, blurring a line, squinting at the shadow. Making it physical.”

This search for form within the void continues in her recent works, where shadows appear as gradients—soft tonal shifts that suggest shape without solidifying it. Maher embraces a process rooted in trust and instinct, allowing the work to unfold without fixed direction. Her practice resonates with the idea of the nomad or the temporary inhabitant—those who traverse constantly changing landscapes, both physical and emotional. Abstraction, for Maher, is a means of navigation: uncertain but intuitive, with a thread always waiting to be followed.

Using her hands, eyes, and body, Maher engages with these shifting, unseen contours. She builds forms by feeling her way through space, tracing boundaries by touch and intuition, finding shape in the act of searching. Her works serve as artifacts of this process—records of a journey rather than representations of a destination.

Maher incorporates UV prints of her own photographs—images of chromatic voids—onto aluminum, which she then cuts, bends, and manipulates as the base for layered collages and sculptural works. These compositions are built from planes of color and contour. Depth is implied rather than constructed, evoking landscape and bodily forms without committing to depiction. In Coordinate (eye), these shadow-like forms take prominence. Their smooth, irregular surfaces chart the path of their own making.

In Coordinate (orange), a bent sheet of metal intersects with a protruding rock, while surrounding elements appear to float—both anchored and adrift. The colors shift between muted and fluorescent, and the forms, drawn from Maher’s recurring visual language of ovals and semi-circles, create a tension between presence and suggestion. The tear-drop shape evokes the eye, inviting viewers into a moment of recognition—an act of looking that turns back on itself.

We believe Maher’s newest works—an interplay of sculpture and dimensional collage—form a compelling solo presentation well-suited for The Armory Show spirit and will present a strong and attractive booth. The installation will extend beyond the artworks themselves: both the walls and pedestals of the booth will be painted in pale blue, echoing the tones within the works and amplifying their ethereal, atmospheric presence.