Maria Svarbova
Zlaté Moravce, Slovakia, 1988
About
Lives and works in Slovakia.
Maria’s distinctive style departs from traditional portraiture and focuses on experimentation with space, color and atmosphere. Taking an interest in communist-era architecture and public spaces, Maria transforms each scene with a modern freshness that highlights the depth and range of her creative palette. Carefully composed figures create thematic, dream-like scenes with ordinary objects. Her images hold a silent tension that hints at emergent possibilities under the lilt of clean and smooth surfaces.
There is often a sense of cool detachment and liminality in Maria’s work. Routine actions such as exercise, doctor‘s appointments and domestic tasks are reframed with a visual purity that is soothing and symmetrical, and at times reverberant with an ethereal stillness. The overall effect evokes a contemplative silence in an extended moment of promise and awareness—a quality difficult to achieve in the rapid pace of contemporary life. Maria’s postmodern vision boldly articulates a dialog that compels the viewer to respond to the mystery, loneliness and isolation of the human experience. Nevertheless, deeply embedded within the aqueous pastels, her compositions have a celebratory elegance that transforms the viewer’s gaze into an enduring reverence for life’s simple beauty.
CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Remote Control, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia (2023)
어제의 미래 (Futuro Retro), Seoul Arts Center – Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2022-2023)
This is My Swim Lane, La Termica, Málaga, Spain (2022-2023)
Fragile Concrete, Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, Unité d’Habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille, France (2021)
Sand – Water, Art Angle Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2020)
Yesterday’s Future, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, USA (2020)
Swimming Pool, Lotte Gallery Jamsil, South Korea (2019)
Swimming Pool, Lotte Gallery Incheon, South Korea (2019)
Swimming Pool, Gallery Collective, Bratislava, Slovakia (2019)
Solo exhibition, Contessa Gallery, Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, USA (2019)
Swimming Pool, MMAM_Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Winona, USA (2019)
Asia Premiere_Expo, Art Angle Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2018)
Swimming Pool, Delpozo Store, London, UK (2018)
Swimming Pool, Delpozo Store, Madrid, Spain (2018)
Swimming Pool, Leica Gallery, Miami, USA (2017)
Swimming Pool, Leica Gallery, Rome, Italy (2017)
Swimming Pool, Leica Gallery, Bologna, Italy (2017)
Snow Pool, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, USA (2017)
Swimming Pool, Plenum Gallery, Catania, Italy (2016)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS
This is how we look, is this who we are?, Alzueta Gallery, Barcelona, Spain (2024)
PAN AMSTERDAM, Artitled Contemporary, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2024)
MODERNE ART FAIR PARIS, Artitled Contemporary, Paris, France (2024)
UNSEEN AMSTERDAM, Artitled Contemporary, Amsterdam Netherlands (2024)
MIA PHOTO FAIR, Artitled Contemporary, Milan, Italy (2024)
London Auction ‘ULTIMATE’, PHILLIPS, London, UK (2024)
PHOTO LONDON FAIR, Artitled Contemporary, London, UK (2024)
ART MADRID FAIR, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2024)
London Auction ‘ULTIMATE’, PHILLIPS, London, UK (2023)
PHOTO LONDON FAIR, Artitled Contemporary, London, UK (2023)
ART MADRID FAIR, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2023)
PHOTO LONDON FAIR, Artitled Contemporary, London, UK (2022)
PAM AMSTERDAM, Artitled Contemporary, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2022)
ART MADRID FAIR, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2022)
PHOTO BASEL, Alex Schelsinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2022)
Sotheby’s auction, 20th Century Art: A Different Perspective, London, UK (2021)
SUMMER ART SALON, KODL Contemporary, Prague, Czech Republic (2021)
ART MADRID, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2021)
PHOTO LONDON, Artitled Contemporary, London, UK (2021)
Focus, Gallerie LeRoyer, Montréal, QC, Canada (2021)
Renassaince, Breezy Art Gallery, Musei Di San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome, Italy (2020)
KYOTOGRAPHIE, Art Angle Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, (2020)
PHOTO BASEL, Alex Schelsinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2020)
ART MADRID FAIR, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2020)
ART WYNWOOD, Contessa Gallery, Miami, USA (2020)
212 PHOTOGRAPHY, Istanbul, Turkey (2020)
Cultura Inquieta – Led screen show, Plaza Callao, Madrid, Spain (2019)
ART MADRID FAIR, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain (2019)
PHOTO BASEL, Alex Schlesinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2019)
ART MIAMI, Contessa Gallery, Miami, USA (2019)
ART FAIR WASHINGTON DC, Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Washington DC, USA (2019)
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL, Clube de Criativos de Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal (2018)
Group exhibition, Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, USA (2018)
Wheather, Daelim Museum, Seoul, South Korea (2018)
ART MIAMI, Contessa Gallery, Miami, USA (2018)
Group exhibition, Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (2018)
FOTOMATON INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL, Orihuela, Spain (2017)
ART MIAMI, Scope Art Show, Miami, USA (2017)
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL – Foto Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (2017)
ZONA MACO FOTO, Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Mexico city, Mexico (2017)
PHOTO INDEPENDENT, Los Angeles, USA (2017)
ART OVRAG, Vyksa, Russia (2017)
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL – PhotoVogue, Vogue Italia, Milan, Italy (2016) INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL – Talent Latent, Tarragona, Spain (2016)
