Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman is an award-winning illustrator, writer, author, artist, and designer.

Kalman has written and illustrated over eighteen children’s books, and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker Magazine, and is well known for her collaboration with Rick Meyerowitz on the “New Yorkistan” cover in 2001 and “The New York City Sub-Culinary Map.”

Her picture book Fireboat: the heroic adventures of the John J. Harvey, won the annual Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction in 2003.

Other projects include illustrating Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style. A small opera based on the text was composed by Nico Muhly. She has created two monthly online columns for the New York Times. The first, "The Principles of Uncertainty" (2006-07), was a narrative journal of her life. The second "And The Pursuit of Happiness" (2009) was a year-long exploration of American History and democracy.

Kalman has had eight exhibitions at the Julie Saul Gallery since 2003. In 2010, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia organized a retrospective of Kalman’s work entitled Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World). The show traveled to the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco, CA), the Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles, CA), and the Jewish Museum in NYC. In April 2014 the original paintings for The Elements of Style were featured in a showcase.

Kalman was awarded the AIGA Medal for her work in storytelling, illustration, and design in 2017.