BIO

Maria Andrievskaya (b.1993) is an artist living and working in London. Her practice is about her constant observation of nature, and how its subtleties can symbolise the complexities of our inner world. Through sustained looking, she feels that the microscopic world of plants can reveal parallels to our states of mind. I see nature not as ornamental and passive, but as an energetic companion to our own existence, one that should be tenderly protected and acknowledged.

Within her work, the land serves as a sentient character in its own right, one that beckons us in and soothes all that exists within it. Hazes of light evoke an eternal dawn or dusk, as if the landscape is constantly on the edge of change. As part of her continuing material enquiry, she collects rocks and earth from her homeland of Cyprus to grind into handmade oil paint, infusing the canvas with the environment she is recalling. She intends for her canvases to feel vibrant and alive, as if they can continue to flourish and grow beyond its edges.

Shifting between our collective familiarity with old master techniques and the childhood motifs that informed her own lifetime, she seeks to challenge the accessibility and hierarchy of visual language in art. Through painting, she is curious to find an alternative reality in response to our failure to protect that which nurtures us. She strives to evoke a sense of wonder, connection and shelter, inviting viewers to see the intricate natural world through a lens of deeper understanding and appreciation.

CV

Education

2021-24 BA (Hons) Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

  • Will the meadows bloom again?, Soho Revue, London, UK

  • Degree Show, City & Guilds of London Art School

  • Arbeteta, The Roamer Project, Madrid, Spain

  • Apocalyptic Changes of State, BWG Gallery, London, UK

2023

  • Untitled Art Fair Miami, Room57 Gallery

  • Sadness is But a Wall Between Two Gardens, Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London, UK

  • Sweet Potion, Artistellar Gallery, London, UK

  • First Impression, Room57 Gallery, New York

  • The Flesh and the Answer, Art on a Postcard Auction, London, UK

  • CGLAS 1st & 2nd Year Interim Show, London, UK

  • Nature Holds a Mirror, Ambar Quijano

  • Art on a Postcard, International Women’s day Auction, London, UK

2022

  • Wilderness of Being, HdM Gallery, curated by Cassandra Bowes, London, UK

  • CGLAS 1st & 2nd Year Interim Show, Ugly Duck, London, UK

Awards

2024 The Baton Fine Art Prize, City & Guilds of London Art School

2023 ACS x City & Guilds of London Art School Undergraduate Prize

2022 Shortlisted for The Painter-Stainers Prize