MARIA KOZAK

Her drawings and paintings are intuitive, psychological landscapes populated by figures that exist beyond conventional boundaries of time and space, transcribing relationships with the self, others, and the sublime. Driven by existential inquiries into the nature of reality and the construction of society, Kozak’s practice embraces the full spectrum of human experience, from the sacred to the profane.

Compositions are born digitally as sketchings on a tablet. Kozak pushes and pulls at abstract fields of color, excavating shapes and forms. Prone to pareidolia, figures gradually emerge. These drawings are then manipulated, cut, and pasted into endless layers of color combinations, often remixed with other drawings until the composition is resolved.

Existing as numerous files and multiple realities, the works ultimately become large-scale canvases—morphologies that live between screens and the physical world. Thin washes create atmospheric depth, while textured impasto passages provide moments of sensual materiality. The paintings operate in a fertile territory between recognition and mystery, presenting viewers with figures that feel simultaneously familiar and unknowable. Her work draws on German Expressionism, Surrealism, psychedelia, and the Transavanguardia.

Kozak has been featured in Artsy, The Wall Street Journal, Cool Hunting, and Surface magazine. Her work has been shown most recently at LETO Gallery in Warsaw, Dreamsong in Minneapolis, and the Detroit Public Library. She is a recipient of a NYFA/NYSCA Grant and a Schusterman Foundation Fellowship for her work in emerging technology. An upcoming solo show is planned in autumn 2026 at Fabienne Levy Gallery Zurich.

Courtesy Fabienne Levy, Zurich/Geneva.