About

Maria Chevska is an artist living and working in London. From 1990 until 2016, she was a Professor of fine art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford.  

Foremost a painter, she often exhibits her sculpture, and installation alongside her paintings. Her works have specifically engaged with poetry, language, and selected writers, that connect to, and exist in dialogue with: philosophy, memory, history, and current events. The works emerge through the intersection of idea, material, gesture, and process - a fluid and provisional relationship between the paintings and objects is sustained that will find a completion through the role of a viewer’s participation and reception of the works.

Significant projects since the early ‘90s include collaborations with artists, and writers leading to numerous publications; a monograph ‘Vera’s Room, the Art of Maria Chevska’ was published by Black Dog in 2005. Solo exhibitions have taken place in the UK, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Poland, and USA.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014
Dubious to Reason, Vane, Newcastle, UK
2013
From the Diary of a Fly (in dialogue, Philip Akkerman), Mummery+Schnelle, London, UK
2011
Guest from the Future (collaboration with Simon Morley), Galerie8, London, UK
2010
And, Modernism, San Francisco, CA, USA
2009
Free and easy, Mummery+Schnelle, London, UK
2008
Yet, Gallery Kalhama & Piippo Contemporary, Helsinki, Finland
2007
For it seems, Souterrain, the Hoffman Collection, Berlin, Germany
Drei Farben-Weiss, Rohkunstbau, Schloss Sacrow, Berlin, Germany
2006
Limits, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
Les Mots Pour le Faire, Musee D’Art de Clamecy, France
Idyll, Galerie Philippe Casini, Paris, France
2005
[Who is refused], Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2004
Reading Room, MOCA, London, UK
Can't Wait [letters RL], Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
2003
Vera’s Room, Kunstpunkt, Berli, Germany
Recent Paintings, Galerie Philippe Casini, Paris, France
Eh (ii) Artotheque, Caen, France; (iii) Maison des Arts de Bagneux, France
2002
K, Galerie Philippe Casini, Paris, France
Eh (i) Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Amiens, France
Recent Paintings, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
2001
Why Don’t You, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
2000
Recent Paintings, Galerie Philippe Casini, Paris, France
Company, Watertoren Galerie; W3 Galerie, Vlissingen, The Netherlands
Put Yourself in My Shoes, Maze Galerie, Turin, Italy
1999
Mimic, Abbot Hall Art Gallery and Museum, Cumbria, UK
Eyeballing, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
1997
Spoken Image, (i) Kunstmuseum, Heidenheim; (ii) Museum Goch, Germany
Perpetua, Gallerie Awangarda BWA, Wroclaw, Poland
1996
Weight, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
1994
Recent Paintings, Anderson O’Day Gallery, London, UK
Perpetua, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK
Caput Mortum, The Warehouse Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1992
Visibility, Anderson O’Day Gallery, London, UK
1990
Language, Brasenose College Oxford, UK
1989
Seemingly, Anderson O’Day Gallery, London, UK
1988
Voyage Out, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK
1987
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK
1986
Echo, Mario Fletcher Gallery, London, UK
1985
Of Pyramids and Sailing Shoes, Midland Group, Nottingham, UK
1982
Stalker, Air Gallery, London, UK

Selected Group Exhibitions

2018
Agency,curated by Mark Segal at Eagle Gallery, London, UK
Space Shift, curated by Sarah Kogan, APT gallery, London, UK
2018
Once I had a vision…the left hand of darkness, curated by Tony Godfrey, Manila, Phillipines
2017
the horizontal within, the horizontal within, Lubomirov-Hughes Gallery, London, UK
Art and the Word, Helsinki Contemporary, Helsinki, Finland
2016
It is one thing to sing the beloved, Dada da academy at Parallel, Vienna, Austria
2015
Abstract Apartment, (venue 1), Deborah House, London, UK
Crowd (video book), Off the s{h}elf: the eclectic in the artist's book, i’klectik Art-Lab, London, UK
2014
Group Exhibition, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland
Painting About Painting, Simmons & Simmons, London, UK
Little patch of yellow wall, curated by Jane Bustin, Lion & Lamb, London, UK
2013
Do You Believe in Angels, Mo Space, Manila, & Equator Art Projects, Singapore
The Dark Would, curated by Philip Davenport, Summerhall, Edinburgh; Bury Art Museum & Gallery, UK
2011
Forward Looking, Oriel Mostyn and Solent Gallery, Southampton, UK
2010
Eye of the blackbird (collaboration with Stephen Lee), Tank, London, UK
A Thousand Yard Stare [Works on Paper], Art Space Gallery, London, UK
2009
Michael Landy’s Art Bin, South London Gallery, UK
Travelling Light, WW Gallery & Biennale di Venetia 2009, London, UK; Venice, Italy Mauer Museum, Berlin
2007
Altro Mondo, Galerie Casini, Paris, France
Slought in Berlin: The New Epistemology, Galerie Heike Curtze, Germany
Who’s on First, Royal Academy Schools Gallery, London, UK
2006
Artists Books, ICA, London, UK
Lekker, APT Gallery, London, UK
2003
Translater’s Notes, curated by Irene Amore, Cafe Gallery Projects, London, UK
Independence, South London Gallery, London, UK
2002
Peintures, Rennes, France
Stoff, [Malerie, Plastik Installation], Städtische Galerie, Albstadt; Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Germany
De Singuliers Debordements, Maison de la Culture, Amiens, France
Fluent, Centenary Gallery, London, UK
2001
Three Painters, Marianne Hollenbach Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
2000
Oeuvres d’etre, curated by Jacapo Benci, Temple University, Rome, Italy
1999
Chora, curated by Sue Hubbard and Simon Morley, London, and touring UK
1998
Tescani Artists in Residence, Bacau Museum of Art, Romania
1997
Presencing, Eagle Gallery, London, UK
Artoll Lyrik Tage, Cologne, Germany
Lemonade, Andrew Mummery Gallery, London, UK
1996
Andata e Ritorno, Spacex Gallery & Museum Exeter, UK
Permission to Speak, Worcester City Museum, Derb; Peterborough, UK
New Painting, (Arts Council Touring), Bath; Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Norwich, UK
1995
White Out, Curwen Gallery, London, UK
1994
Identita e Rappresentazione Cartografico, Museo Pigorini, Rome, Italy
1992
New Hall College Cambridge, UK
Whitechapel Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
1991
The Theory and Practice of the Small Painting, Anderson O’Day Gallery, London, UK
1990
22nd Festival International de la Peinture, Musee Grimaldi, Antibes, France
1984
Landscape, Memory and Desire, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
Four Painters, Riverside Studios, London, UK
New Images: Printmaking, Blond Fine Art, London, UK
Rock-a-bye, New Blood on Paper, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
1983
Gulbenkian Foundation Award Winners Prints, touring UK & Ireland
1982
British Drawing, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
1981
Art and the Sea, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton; ICA, London, UK

Awards

2016
ART360, DACS, London
2002-05
British Council, UK
2004
Arts Council England, Grants to Artists, UK
Residency at Saint-Leger Centre d’Art Contemporain, France
1998
Bursary, British Council and Tescani Cultural Centre, Romania
1994
Austin Abbey Award, British School, Rome, Italy
1984
Greater London Arts Association, UK
1983
Whitechapel Gallery (artists in schools) Residency at Hackney Downs
1982
Gulbenkian Foundation, UK

Selected Publications etc.

2018
Michael Petry, Art and the Word, Thames & Hudson 2017
Catherine Witt & Stéphanie Boulard, Ententes- a partir d’Hélène Cixous [Complicities/hearing/understanding –
Starting with/departing from Hélène Cixoux], Les Presses Universitaires de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, France
2017
Brandon Taylor with Maria Chevska: Something is said..., Journal of Contemporary Painting 3, 1&2, Intellect Books, UK
2014
Artist pages, Asymptote, online literary journal.
2013
Sherman Sam, Exhibition Review: Philip Akkerman/Maria Chevska, Artforum, October issue, USA
2012
Philip Davenport, The Dark Would [Anthology of Language Art], Apple Pie Editions, UK
2011
Chris Townsend, ‘To Confuse the 20th Century’, catalogue essay for Guest from the Future, Galerie8, London
2010
Hélène Cixous, Peintures: Écrits sur l'art, Marta Segarra, Joana Masó (ed), Hermann Éditeurs, Paris; Edinburgh University Press (2012), France & UK
Frederic Regard, Un effet de Manche: lecture de «K. A Notebook» de Maria Chevska et Helene Cixous, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, France
2009
Michael Berkeley, Private Passions, interview guest, BBC Radio 3, London, UK
Lois Stonock, ‘Maria Chevska: Free and easy’, Turps Banana, Issue 6, London, UK
2008
Pennina Barnett, ‘Stain’, Shame & Sexuality: Psychoanalysis and Visual Culture, Routledge, UK
Mary Bryden, ‘Helene Cixous and the Painterly Eye’, Thirty Voices in the Feminine, Michael Bishop (ed), Rodopi, The Netherlands
2007
Rebecca Fortnum, Contemporary British Women Artists, in their Own Words, I. B. Tauris Publishers, London, UK
Isabelle Baudino, ‘Vera’s Room: the Art of Maria Chevska’, review for Etudes Britannique Contemporaines, France
2006
Helene Cixous, Ex-Cities, collaborative project, Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Emma Hill, ‘New Dimensions: Artist’s Books’, Printmaking Today, vol. 15 no. 2 Cello Press Ltd, Oxford, UK
2005
Tony Godfrey, Helene Cixous, Vera’s Room, the Art of Maria Chevska, monograph, Black Dog Publishing, London (ISBN 904772293), UK
2003
Jerzy Kierkuc-Bielinski, ‘Reading As Revolution’, Reading Room, Utopia Press, UK
2003
Ann Hindry, ‘Interweaving Language: the work of Maria Chevska’, catalogue essay for Eh, Amiens, France
2001
Mark Gisbourne, ‘Memory Matters’, profile for Art Review, April 2001, London, UK
1997
Renè Hirner and Joerg Becker, ‘Spoken Image’, catalogue essay for solo exhibitions at Kunstmuseum Heidenheim and Museum Goch, Germany
1994
Michael Archer, ‘Perpetua’, catalogue essay for solo exhibition at Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK
Mary Bryden, ‘The Painted Text: Maria Chevska and Hélène Cixous’, Word and Image, vol. 10 no. 4, Routledge
1993
Stuart Morgan, ‘Maria Chevska’, text for Warehouse Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
1992
Simon Morley, ‘Visibility’, Art Monthly, November 1992, London, UK
Greg Hilty, ‘Reading Matter’, text for Anderson O’Day Gallery, London, UK
1990
Andrew Renton, ‘Maria Chevska’, catalogue essay for Anderson O’Day Gallery, UK
1988
Sister Wendy Beckett, Contemporary Women Artists, published by Phaidon Press, UK
1985
Anna Bonshek, ‘Feminist Romantic Painting: A Reconstellation’, several publications, UK
Robert Ayers, ‘Maria Chevska’ catalogue essay for exhibition at Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham, UK
1984
Tony Godfrey, ‘Landscape, Memory and Desire’ catalogue essay, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK

Positions Held

1990-2016
Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, UK
1980-1990
Part-time visiting tutor at various art schools in London and the UK
2000-2014
Visiting artist to Cergy Pontoise School of Art, Paris, France
2012-2016
External Examiner in Fine Art at Newcastle University, UK
2013-2018
Member of Faculty for the British School at Rome, British Academy London, UK