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About the Artist

Maria Rose Martin is a Metis interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She primarily works using acrylic paint, collage, photography, digital photography and occasionally dabbles with sculpture within her practice. She enjoys rotating mediums to expand on her knowledgeability with them and to home in on more methods, ultimately, helping her expand expertise in each of them.

The styles Maria primarily incorporates within her work would be the woodland style of art, to reconnect with indigeneity, recount stories and histories that surrounded her while growing up with, this is important for her because it aids to reconnection with land and culture. She also works with digital manipulation photography to create unsettling yet familiar imagery and scenes that reflect whimsy fantasy and history. She achieves this by creating multi-limbed animals or constructed worlds. Within Maria’s photography practice, she also works with shooting miniatures to discuss the idea of the ‘real fake’, attempting to capture the image of nature and the animals found in that space, yet they are all fake. At the root of her entire practice, Maria’s primary bulk of work and research has currently been on exploring the idea of daydreams and imagination, while pulling inspiration from bio art to the surrealistic avant-garde. Her main desire is to question what is happening to the dreamers of the world, where are they fading away to?


Maria is currently a student at the University of Manitoba in the Fine Art studio program, and she will be  graduating spring of 2025, with a BFA honours degree. After graduation, her plan is to re-enter the Fine Art program at the School of Art (University of Manitoba) to obtain an art history degree before pursuing a master’s degree. Ultimately, her goal for the future is to become an instructor at an institution and/or an art conservationist.






Artist Statement - 150 word

Maria Martin is a Metis interdisciplinary artist from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She works primarily with acrylic paint, collage, photography and pencil crayon to create hybrid creatures and stories. She references biological science, whimsy fantasy, horror and storytelling with her imagery. Maria explores ways she can recreate her creatures from her daydreams and imagination, bringing them to life and introducing them to the world to spark wonder.
Maria’s goal is to create works which evoke viewer curiosity, contemplation, and discussion. She aims to allow people to re-experience a sense of childlike fascination, allowing their minds to wander through the crossover of human and animal within bodies of space. Her work challenges viewer perceptions of what is truly known about the world, questioning the importance of imagination in the world. What would the world be without the dreamers?


 
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Resume/CV

EDUCATION

06/2020

HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA, COLLEGE JEANNE-SAUVE

• Received Steven Vermeire Memorial Bursary


06/2020-2025

CURRENT STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

• School of Art Fine Art Studio (Honors Program)



AWARDS AND BURSARIES

George Swinton Scholarship

D Reichert Memorial Bursary

UMSU Bursary

UMSU Indigenous Students Bursary



VOLUNTEER HISTORY

FOLKLORAMA, WINNIPEG, MB, 2017-2019

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA: SCHOOL OF ART, WINNIPEG, MB, 2024-PRESENT

- SOFASA: SCHOOL OF ART STUDENT ASSOCIATION

- SOCIAL PROGRAMMER, 2024-2025

- UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM COMMITTEE, 2024-2025

MAWA, Winnipeg, MB, 2024-ongoing


EXHIBITIONS
(2023)
District SOA – Seduta Art, Winnipeg, MB, April 1st-15th 2023

Salon – School of Art Student Gallery, University of Manitoba, June 1st-14th 2023

No Place Like Home - School of Art Student Gallery, University of Manitoba, September 20th-27th, 2023

OFF the WALL - School of Art Student Gallery, University of Manitoba, October 25th-1st of November 2023

(2024)

Painting Systems Hallway Exhibition – ART Lab 3rd floor hallway, University of Manitoba, March 2024

Who, What, When, Where is Home? - School of Art Student Gallery, University of Manitoba, September 20th-27th, 2024

Senior Studio Students Hallway Exhibition – ART Lab 3rd floor hallway, University of Manitoba, September 2024

(2025)

University of Manitoba – School of Art Honours Exhibition – April 2025


COLLABORATIONS

(2024)
Sol Lewitt Installation – May 2024

Mural on 4th Floor Tache lead by Mike Valcourt – 2024-Ongoing


PUBLICATIONS
(2024)
-Dominique Rey – MOTHERGROUND – Exhibition catalogue – French Interview Transcriptions