Her signature series depicting elderly women, often using real gold leaf, evokes Medieval and Early Renaissance times in a surrealistic manner. According to Malamed:

“My work has always been about people: lovers, brides and families. In recent years it has focused on the isolation and alienation of the elderly in our society as seen especially in old women. These paintings are not a series of traditional portraits; I do not work from models or photographs. The faces that are presented to the world are often masks that may hide panic and fear. I have tried to show the real dignity and power which is retained by those who grow old in a hostile environment.”

Lyanne Malamed was born in the small town of Alton, Iowa, during the Great Depression. Because she was never able to visit a museum during her formative years, her initial exposure to art was limited to reproductions in art history books.  Nonetheless, Lyanne pursued a professional art career and graduated from Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, before taking graduate courses in art at the University of Iowa. A professional artist since 1956, Malamed has been exhibited by museums and galleries in over fifteen solo exhibitions and twenty group shows. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections including Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Johnson and Johnson, and Rider College. Lyanne remained active in her artistic endeavors well into her eighties, when she revisited the medium of egg tempera.