ABOUt
Maria
Maria Kiriakov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She received Master’s Degrees in Mural Painting from The National Academy of Art in Bulgaria, and in Painting and Graphics from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
She began her professional work in 1985, working as a designer of public spaces. During that time, she painted six major frescoes on public buildings in Hungary, Austria, and Bulgaria.
In 1994 Maria relocated to Canada with her family and began a career in animation. As an Art Director and Designer, she leads teams of artists for numerous children’s series. With a filmography of over 90 productions, she has produced work for companies such as Disney, Nickelodeon, Netflix, and more.
In tandem with her commercial work, Maria continues her artistic endeavors in the field of fine arts, producing paintings and commissions for collectors and galleries across the world.
ArtWork
Maria’s work explores themes of personal and cultural nostalgia. She aims to preserve cultural traditions by translating the past to the present. She views her projects as magical retrospectives that invite us to remember the past as we look for solutions to today’s problems.
Each work springs from a deeply emotional place, where her history dances with her imagination, and realism and metaphysics can play. For inspiration, she turns to memories of her childhood and adolescence, spent in various European countries. She also draws upon humanity’s collective memory in the form of the world’s historical masterpieces, which she holds in juxtaposition to modern life and the mood of her subjects.
Her technique is varied and expressive; her colors are bright and saturated. Maria’s style and approach are influenced by Byzantine traditions, Eastern Orthodox iconography and frescoes, the Early Renaissance, and the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. She makes her own signature frames for each work, which she paints or gilds, transforming them into part of the painting itself.
Whether a contemporary portrait, landscape, or still life, Maria’s work contains a multitude of poetic gestures and historical references that give her subjects a resonance and relevance.
working Process
Maria Kiriakov works on a solid foundation -- a plywood sub frame -- upon which cotton primed canvas is glued. She uses dry gesso with calcium carbonate. The painting surface is further treated to resemble a smooth wall prepared for a fresco. The artist uses natural and polymer primers, tempera, pigments with polymer binders, oil paint, and varnishes.