Maria SVARBOVA
マーリア・シュヴァルボヴァー
Maria Svarbova was born in 1988 in Slovakia. Despite having studied restoration and archeology, her artistic medium is photography. From 2010 to the present, the immediacy of Maria’s photographic instinct keeps on garnering international acclaim and is setting new precedents in photographic expression. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Hasselblad Masters Award, and her exhibitions have placed her among the vanguard of her contemporaries, attracting attention of prominent publications such as Vogue, Forbes, CNN or The Guardian around the world. Her work is a staple of social media’s limelight. Maria’s talent earned her a spot on the coveted 30 under 30 Forbes list as well as a commission for a billboard-sized promotion on the massive Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan. In 2019, Apple commission her to create an exclusive photography series shot by iPhone. This publication is preceded by two books of her photographs: Swimming Pool (2017) and Future Retro (2019). Swimming Pools presents an updated version of the now out-of- stock Swimming Pool, and it features new format, design and content.
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.
Publications
FUTURO RETRO
Selected Solo Exhibitions
London Auction 'ULTIMATE' 10-16 May 2024, PHILLIPS, London, UK
Photo London Fair, Artitled Contemporary, London, United Kingdom, Art Fair
Art Madrid Fair, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain, Art Fair
2023 -
London Auction 'ULTIMATE' 19 May 2023, PHILLIPS, London, UK
Remote Control, Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, Bratislava, Slovakia, Solo museum exhibition
Photo London Fair, Artitled Contemporary, London, United Kingdom, Art Fair
Art Madrid Fair, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain, Art Fair
2022 -
어제의 미래 (Futuro Retro), Seoul Arts Center - Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea, 2022-2023, Solo museum exhibition
This is My Swim Lane, La Termica, Malaga, Spain, 2022-2023, Solo museum exhibition
Photo London Fair, Artitled Contemporary, London, United Kingdom, Art Fair
PAM Amsterdam, Artitled Contemporary, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Art Fair
Art Madrid Fair, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain, Art Fair
Photo Basel , Alex Schelsinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, Art Fair
2021 -
Sotheby's auction, 20th Century Art: A Different Perspective, London, UK
Fragile Concrete, Solo exhibition at Unité d’Habitation Le Corbusier, Marseille, France, Kolektiv Cité Radieuse
Summer Art Salon 2021, KODL Contemporary, Prague, Czech Republic, Group gallery exhibition
ART Madrid, Gallery BAT, Spain, Art Fair
Photo London, ARTITLEDcontemporary, UK, Art Fair
Focus, Gallerie LeRoyer, Montréal, Canada, Group gallery exhibition
2020 -
Sand - Water, Art Angle Gallery, Taipei, Taiiwan, Solo gallery exhibition
212 PHOTOHRAPHY, Istanbul, Turkey, International Photography Festival, Solo exhibition
Renassaince, Breezy Art Gallery, Musei Di San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome, Italy, Group museum exhibition
Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho, USA, Solo gallery exhibition
Kyotographie, Art Angle Gallery, Kyoto, Japan, International Photography Festival, Solo exhibition
Photo Basel , Alex Schelsinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, Art Fair
Art Madrid Fair, Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain, Art Fair
ART Wynwood, Contessa Gallery, Miami, USA, Art Fair
2019 -
Lotte Gallery Jamsil, South Korea, Solo gallery exhibition
Lotte Gallery Incheon, South Korea, Solo gallery exhibition
Gallery Collective, Bratislava, Slovakia, Solo gallery exhibition
Contessa Gallery, Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, USA, Solo gallery exhibition
MMAM_Minnesota Marine Art Museum, Minnesota, USA, Solo museum exhibition
Plaza Callao, Cultura Inquieta, Madrid, Spain, Led screen show
Gallery BAT, Madrid, Spain, ART Madrid Fair
Alex Schlesinger Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland, Photo Basel
Contessa Gallery, Miami, USA, ART MIAMI
Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Washington DC, USA, Art Fair Washington DC
2018 -
Art Angle Gallery, Taipei. Taiwan, Asia Premiere Expo Solo exhibition of whole work
Clube de Criativos de Portugal, Lisbon, Portugal, International Photography Festival
Delpozo Store, London, UK, Solo exhibition
Delpozo Store, Madrid, Spain, Solo exhibition
Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho, USA, Group exhibition
Daelim Museum, Seoul, South Korea, Group exhibition ,,Wheather,,
Contessa Gallery, ART MIAMI Miami, USA, Art Fair
Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Art Fair
2017 -
Leica Gallery, Miami, USA Solo gallery exhibition
Leica Gallery, Rome, Italy, Solo gallery exhibition
Leica Gallery, Bologna, Italy, Solo gallery exhibition
Gilman Contemporary, Ketchum, Idaho, USA, Sollo gallery exhibition
Fotomaton, Orihuela, Spain, International Photography Festival, Solo museum exhibition
Scope Art Show, Art Miami | Miami/USA
Foto Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey, International Photography Festival
Momentum Fine Art Gallery, Zona Maco Foto, Mexico city, Mexico, Art Fair
Photo Independenl, Los Angeles, USA, Art Fair
ART OVRAG, Vyksa, Russia, International Festival of The New Urban Culture
2016 -
Plenum Gallery, Catania Sicily, Solo gallery exhibition
PhotoVogue, Vogue Italia, Milan, Italy, International Photography Festival
Talent Latent, Tarragona, Spain, International Photography Festival
