Maria Chevska: Dubious to Reason

About

Maria Chevska's solo exhibition, 'Dubious to Reason', consists of a large series of recent paintings entitled From the Diary of a Fly and collage sculptures on plinths titled Muniments. In her paintings and three-dimensional collages Chevska explores both media's capacities to shift and evolve ideas: of representation through the gestures of her painting, and of social forms through her collages. Interested in both time and the performative, the paintings and sculptures sidestep a rigid definition of figuration or abstraction; it's the visible traces of their production that are important.

The assemblage of paintings and objects draws reference from Franz Kafka's celebrated novella, The Metamorphosis, in which travelling salesman Gregor Samsa is mysteriously transformed into a giant insect. Chevska's viewers' conceptual viewpoint is that of this bug or fly ' shown through vertiginous changes of scale ' by analogy, showing the metamorphosed Samsa's predicament as he climbs walls and ceilings peering down at his family whose life he can no longer share.

Maria Chevska lives and works in London, UK. She studied Fine Art at Byam Shaw (now University of the Arts, London) in the 1970s. Recent solo exhibitions include 'From the Diary of a Fly', Mummery+Schnelle, London (2013), 'Guest from the Future', Galerie8, London (2011), 'And', Modernism, San Francisco (2010), and 'Yet', Gallery Kalhama and Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki (2008). Group shows include 'Do You Believe in Angels', Mo Space, Manila and Equator Art Projects, Singapore (2014), 'The Dark Would', Summerhall, Edinburgh, and Bury Art Museum (2013), 'Eye of the blackbird', Tank, London (2011) and 'A Thousand Yard Stare', Art Space Gallery, London (2010). Chevska has undertaken residencies in France, Romania, and the British School at Rome. She teaches at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, where she is currently a professor of Fine Art.