Maya Kotomori

2 weeks ago | justsmilemagazine.com | Maya Kotomori

The wooden woman pleads, her right arm raised to signal her need. A patterned red scarf wraps her head, the dark flat of her face deep in its expressionlessness—her breasts are low, her stomach round, posture hunched. She is Mama U Tried (2019), a sculpture by fine artist Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, a master at freezing animus in his inanimate sculptures. Brooklyn-born and now Los Angeles-based, Desir quickly made a name for himself in the contemporary art world.

4 weeks ago | family.style | Maya Kotomori

Jo Shane slowly walks down Pike Street, followed by a videographer. The artist is stone-faced and stoic in black leather heels and a white doctor’s coat. Her short honey-blonde bob is curled neatly under her chin, rosy scowl enhanced with matte pink lipstick, eyes sharp and sensible. She enters Blade Study’s minimal facade as a crowd of onlookers film her with their iPhones through the Chinatown, New York gallery’s front window.

1 month ago | complex.com | Maya Kotomori

Take a trip down memory lane on all the best red carpet moments at the Met Gala that left an indelible mark on fashion history. April 30, 2025Marleen Moise/Getty Images, Theo Wargo/Getty Images, Neilson Barnard/Getty ImagesAs the nursery rhyme goes, May marks the end of April showers and the beginning of the month’s flowers. But for New Yorkers, it’s also time for arguably one of the most important cultural events of the year: The Met Gala.

Mar 27, 2025 | i-d.co | Maya Kotomori

text by MAYA KOTOMORIphotography LIV SOLOMONLourdes “Lola” Leon, known to the music world as Lolahol, has a single white tulip tucked into her cleavage, a bit of skin-as-accessory, accentuating her black leather jacket and matching low-slung pants.

Mar 25, 2025 | documentjournal.com | Maya Kotomori

In ‘Trauma Plot,’ Jamie Hood writes herself whole again Posted Through raw excavation and narrative shape-shifting, Hood transforms her assault wounds into a rebellion against literary conventions Meet Jamie. A book character, a woman, a friend. She is a reliable narrator and someone people would call a survivor; of multiple assaults, of life.