Maria Polushkina was born in Moscow. She began her artistic journey at Sergei Kazarnovsky’s Klass-Tsentr. She lived and studied in Germany for several years. She graduated from the Faculty of Communication Theory and Mass Media at Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin). She has lived in Moscow since 2011. In 2016, she co-authored the book “Between Us” with poet Anna Arkatova, harmoniously combining Arkatova’s poetry with Polushkina’s paintings. In 2022, one of Maria’s paintings will travel to the Moon as part of a joint project by Moon Gallery and the European Space Agency (ESA). The artist’s works are held in private collections in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Israel, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Greece, and Russia.
“Everyone interprets my painting style very differently. My teacher calls it painterly graphic art or graphic painting. I want to find something between figurative painting and minimalist abstraction. It is important to me to convey emotions, feelings, and atmosphere through simple means. Sometimes it is possible to trace the emotions I was experiencing during a particular period of time,” — Maria Polushkina.
Long, long ago, bottle mail was used to study ocean currents. Messages in bottles were also sent by sailors whose ships were wrecked. Often a long time would pass before the bottles with their notes were cast up on shore. In the artist’s view, at the moment — when a bottle was thrown from the ship into the ocean, the people on deck felt that very sense of hope.
The work “Lights” tells a story of home warmth and comfort that bring calm and hope. “You come home late in the evening and, as you approach the house, your eyes always search for your own window. You hope your loved ones are still awake and waiting for you. You hope that here you will find support and a sense of safety. Found it! It’s lit! Joy wells up, and you quicken your step,” — Maria Polushkina.