In the recent events, everyone got hit in the face with the awareness of where they are. Whether travel restrictions or isolation at home—there was no place unaffected. People found themselves confined to one side of some border versus another. Some lucky few got shielded from the tragedy. For some unfortunates, the locales of their captivity spelled death sentences.

This work is about delineating a location. Flags, banners, emblems, pennants signify many possibilities and granularities of divisions of space. Are locales concrete and demarcated or abstract and fuzzy? Is it a country? A city? A continent? Creed? Citizenship? In what cases having a flag over one’s head is a trap versus a privilege?

This work was displayed at Glogau artist residency in Berlin, throughout the residency’s building and outside. It signified this place as a space of creativity and imagination, a bastion of beauty in the face of challenging situations and material preoccupations elsewhere.

Flags

Sun, Sea, Forest and Mountain were in the ‘Almost Tension’ show at the Altes Handelsschule, organized by Pilotenküche International Artist Residency in Leipzig.

Sun lured the visitors with all-consuming yellow, followed by Sea, then Forest, Mountain last. The works stood on custom-built wooden stands back to back. The visitors had the opportunity to wander between the works, submerging themselves into the world of lines and patterns.

Each painting distills many experiences of a phenomenon into a concise, iconic image. These images ponder innocence and abstraction. Fleeting moments and timelessness. Completeness and space. Raw and loose canvas, alternating spontaneous and measured brushstrokes. All to preserve the freshness and clarity that only the first layer of paint permits.

Almost Tension

Times of Cholera

Created in early 2020 as part of Pilotenkueche artist residency, this body of work seeks to create a sense of “comfort” in the viewer, to please and soothe. As Matisse said: “something like a good chair that provides relaxation from fatigue.” Through its simplicity and immediacy, it opens the door for contemplation and a more profound emotional connection. 

Add

Maria Kubysh

Opportunities

For Artists

ArtConnect

Support