Their route into art began far from a straightforward institutional path. Edwards left school at 16 with minimal qualifications before completing an Extended Diploma at Leeds Arts University from 2016 to 2018, followed by a BA in Sculpture & Environmental Art at The Glasgow School of Art from 2018 to 2021. Since graduating, the artist has built a practice increasingly rooted in rural culture, labour and the politics of who gets to shape a place.

Edwards’ practice often begins some distance from the conventional art world: they spend time observing everyday situations and visiting what they describe as “places on the outskirts of other places”, gathering objects and speaking to the people who know these environments intimately.

“I’m interested in the poetics of people and places,” they tell The Wick. “I’m constantly looking for ways that industries and labour affect environments.” Working with non-art specialists is part of this process, giving Edwards a way to make room for “everyday people and their skills in contemporary art contexts”. Farmers, sailors, hedgelayers and stonemasons have all become collaborators, bringing forms of knowledge and labour into the artist’s work. Edwards is particularly interested in the strange associations objects can acquire when assembled differently or put to unexpected use, and in the moments when an unlikely encounter can expose a larger truth.

This attention to place has taken many forms. During the Mount Stuart Artists Residency in 2023, Edwards developed TWOFOLD, a project exploring queer and rural identities on the Isle of Bute that led to permanent site-specific works. They are also leading a commission along Stranraer’s abandoned waterfront, co-designing an active landmark with communities along its post-industrial coastline.

Kissing Gate remains especially significant to the artist. Selected for the 13th and 14th editions of Sculpture in the City, the work has given Edwards the opportunity to see their sculpture enter the rhythms of daily public life alongside artists they had long admired.

“My biggest achievement to date would be having Kissing Gate included in Sculpture in the City for the last 3 years,” Edwards says. “To have my work displayed alongside some industry greats including Ai Weiwei, the Wilson Twins and Julian Opie is something I never could have imagined. At least once a day I imagine who might be walking through it at any particular moment and that makes me feel connected to the world.”

There is another side to that achievement which Edwards speaks about with equal candour. “As a poor kid from Yorkshire who didn’t go to school, the capacity to make a living as an artist and continue this early career momentum is hard graft,” they add. “And I’m still consistently pinching myself.”

Edwards is championed by Stella Ioannou Hon FRIBA, Artistic Director of Sculpture in the City and Founding Director of LACUNA. Ioannou met Edwards when Kissing Gate was selected for Sculpture in the City, and sees the artist’s approach to boundaries and public space as a particularly distinctive part of their practice.

“Maya’s practice is carving a distinctive niche in the contemporary art world, with their practice challenging fixed boundaries and reimagining them as something more generous, encouraging opportunities for encounters and ultimately, connection.

They stand out as an artist with a clear and evolving voice, using accessible, participatory art to question boundaries, connect communities, and reconsider how we inhabit and share space.”