Maria Yankovskaya was born in Saint Petersburg in a family of an architect and an artist. After successfully graduating from Art school named after Johansson under Academy of Arts, she applied to Saint Petersburg State University to receive a degree in restoration. After couple of years she has decided to change a course and was accepted into Academy of Arts named after Stiglitz to study costume design.Furthermore, Maria has decided to devote herself into working in the sphere of fashion design where she has successfully worked for three years. She has started to work as a fashion journalist, producer and chief editor at St. Petersburg magazine “Sobaka”. Eventually, she has ended up working as chief editor of watch and accessories department at Esquire magazine. In 2014, Yankovskaya has decided to pursue career as a professional artist and her first personal exhibition has taken place at Winzavod Contemporary Art Center. During this period, she has continued to work in Esquire in Moscow. In 2016, she has had two successful exhibitions, one of which has taken place in Tallinn Portrait Gallery, Estonia. In the same year, she has stared her teaching career at Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
In her work, Maria explores the themes of gender and body, by challenging societal norms and stereotypes. The artist operates the images of men and women as its two main figures within the painting. The characters are impersonal and represented in the airless, white space of the canvas. The author speaks about an interaction of feminine and men energy inside the person. It can be interpreted as love, partnership, misunderstanding or hostility –or any conflict between feminine and masculine that catches artist’s attention.
At the present moment, Maria lives and works in her studio and teaches an illustration course at fashion school of Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
Selected exhibitions & projects:
Art Taipei, Represented by Khankhalaev Gallery, Taiwan, 2019
«Self-identification », Center of Contemporary Art Artservatory, Khabarovsk, Russia, 2018
«Imagination creates an event », Lappartment 83 Art-constantis, 2018
«Imagination creates an event », Lappartment 83 Art-constantis, 2017
«Anima and Animus », Nikolskaya gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2017
«Love Never Stops », Tallinn Portrait Gallery,Estonia, 2016
«Identification of a woman», Tallinn Portrait Gallery, Estonia, 2016
«Kinesics» After Six Gallery, Vinzavod Contemporary Art Centre, Moscow Russia, 2014
Selected press:
https://www.admagazine.ru/culture
Masha Yankovskaya for The Blue Print
Harper's Bazaar // Masha Yankovskaya
https://www.elle.ru/stil-zhizni
https://www.interior.ru
Bazaar-art @Masha Yankovskaya
