28.07.2024

Katyanova Maria

Born in Angarsk in 1991, lives and works in St. Petersburg. In 2022 graduated from the Repin Academy of Arts, Faculty of Painting.

Born in Angarsk in 1991, lives and works in St. Petersburg.

In her practice she explores the subject's self-definition in the modern world. Examines how the modern subject reflects on his emotions, dreams and memories in a world of global overproduction of goods and images, in which everything is turned into a product of buying and selling. Attempts to understand how identity is constructed in the age of mass culture and how archetypal images influence it. Often addresses the theme of personal and collective memory and the feelings that the subject has towards his own past.

In his projects the artist works with images taken from everyday life and personal memories. Using the collage method, she combines these images with cultural symbols, timeless signs, which help to reveal the subject's inner feelings, as well as the presence of the unreal in the everyday.

Blends different mediums, combines painting and photography with metal casting, and creates images that transcend the boundaries of the two-dimensional plane. This method allows the artist to reveal how present and past events, feelings, and childhood narratives are intertwined in the subject's inner world and how they influence the perception of the present.

EDUCATION:

2016 - 2022 — Ilya Repin St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg, Russia
2008 - 2014 — St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, St. Petersburg, Russia

“In her practice explores the theme of the subject's self-definition in the contemporary world. Examines how the modern subject reflects on his emotions, dreams, and memories in a world of global overproduction of goods and images, in which everything is turned into a product of buying and selling. Attempts to understand how identity is constructed in the age of mass culture and how archetypal images influence it. Often addresses the theme of personal and collective memory and the feelings that the subject has about his own past. In his projects the artist works with images taken from everyday life and personal memories. Using the collage method, he combines these images with cultural symbols, timeless signs that help to reveal the subject's inner feelings, as well as the presence of the unreal in the ordinary. Mixes different mediums, combines painting and photography with metal casting, creates images that go beyond the boundaries of the two-dimensional plane. This method allows the artist to reveal how present and past events, feelings and childhood narratives are intertwined in the subject's inner world and how they influence the perception of the present.”

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:

2024 — a—s—t—r—a open.vol. 5, a—s—t—r—a gallery, CCA Winzavod, Moscow
2024 — Default Settings, Nizhny Novgorod
2023 — The last off-site show on the Earth at Plague Space and everywhere, Plague Space, Krasnodar, Krasnodar.
2023 — Topology of the Margins, Central Gogol Library, St. Petersburg, Russia
2023 — Illusion of Reality, Abramova gallery, St.Petersburg
2022 — exhibition of diploma works, Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, St.-Petersburg.
2021 — Neobyatnaya.zip, Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, St.Petersburg
2019 — Kasaniya.zip, Ilya Repin Academy of Arts, St.Petersburg

FAIRS AND AUCTIONS:

2024 — Realism, VLADEY, Moscow
2024 — All for 100, VLADEY, Moscow
2023 — Third Place Art Fair, Third Place, St.-Petersburg
2022 — ARTPROM, VLADEY, Moscow
2022 — All for 100, VLADEY, Moscow
2019 — Summer art market, Sevkabel Port, St.-Petersburg

"The Sleeping Beauty" project

“In this project I work with an ironic reflection on my own self-reflection. Starting from the plot of the fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”, I turn to the theme of romanticizing the suffering hero. The hundred-year dream in which the heroine immerses herself becomes the starting point for reflection on the permanent state of waiting for happiness. I am interested in exploring the contemporary cultural context in which the suffering hero becomes an attractive role model, replicated and commercialized. We encounter this image in literature, music, movies, and fairy tale narratives. In my project, I propose to reinterpret the archetypal image of the suffering princess and reflect on how it influences the behavioral patterns we unconsciously reproduce in our lives. The mirror included in the exhibition asks the viewer the humorous question “will I ever be happy”?”

Katyanova Maria, artist