Kara Maria (née Kara Maria Sloat;[1] born 1968) is a contemporary American visual artist working in painting and mixed media. Her work reflects on political topics – feminism, war, and the environment. She borrows from the broad vocabulary of contemporary painting; blending geometric shapes, vivid hues, and abstract marks, with representational elements.[2] She is based in San Francisco, California.[1]

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Biography

Kara Maria Sloat was born in 1968 in Binghamton, New York.[3][4] Kara Maria moved to San Francisco in 1990 to attend the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).[3] From UC Berkeley she earned a BA in Art Practice in 1993, followed by an MFA in 1998.[3][5] She is married to artist Enrique Chagoya.[1]

According to the Sacramento News & Review: "If scientists could record a visual representation of human emotions, it seems plausible that they would look like Kara Maria's paintings. The San Francisco artist's nonrepresentational geometric shapes are exuberantly hued, well-defined and sharp-edged, and they are interrupted by euphoric swirls or by vague, cloudy patches and an occasional flash of a representational item, like a dog or a fly. They're layered, complicated and electric—just like the workings of the mind. Until scientists figure out how to live stream what human emotions look like and project them on a wall, Maria's work may be the closest thing we've got."[6]

Maria's work can be found in permanent collections including the Crocker Art Museum; the San Jose Museum of Art; Cantor Arts Center; the di Rosa preserve; the de Saisset Museum, among others. She has been the recipient of awards such as a Masterminds Grant from the SF Weekly; a grant from Artadia; and an Eisner Prize from the University of California, Berkeley.[7]^{[better source needed]} In 2014-15 Maria was an Artist in Residence at Recology (the San Francisco dump).[8] She also completed a residency at Djerassi Artists Residency in 2003, and was a Lucas Fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, CA for 2015 to 2016.[9] Presses including Gallery 16; Shark's Ink, Lyons, Colorado;[10] and Smith Andersen Editions, Palo Alto, California[11] have published her prints.

References

External links

• Artist's Website