Born and raised in Chicago, Maria Tomasula is an active part of the Chicago art scene. Maria Tomasula received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and then continued her education at Northwestern University, where she earned a Masters degree in Fine Arts. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame and also is a Lecturer at Northwestern University.
Her recent solo exhibitions were at Forum Gallery New York and Los Angeles, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN and at the Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, IL. Her work was also included in "Larger than Life: Women Artists Making it Big" at Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA (2003), "Recent Acquisitions" at Mexican Fine Arts Museum in Chicago (2002), "Obsessive Drawing" at Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts (2001), and "Timely and Timeless" at the Aldrich Museum in Connecticut (1994). She will be in the group exhibition later this year, "Transitional Objects: Contemporary Still Life" at the Neuburger Museum of Art, Purchase College, New York.
With striking color and theatrical compositions, Tomasula’s artwork is influenced by the votive painting of Mexico, as well as the contemporary writers of Latin America. As an artist she seeks to create very unique, but realistic depictions of still-lifes. Using what seem to be simple objects such as fruit, butterflies and flowers, she brings them together to create metaphorical, poetic and ambiguous work. She showcases flowers and fruits by using shallow space and often will paint a curtain or spotlight to draw attention to her images. The inanimate objects then take on evocative, sensual characteristics.
Each canvas is unique and intriguing as Maria brings her own sensibility to contemporary art of the 21st Century. |
