About
Maria Arendt is a contemporary artist, whose main medium is embroidery or “drawing with thread on fabric”. The artist weaves fragments of the rich history of her family (for instance, her grandmother was famous animalist sculptor Ariadna Arendt), real and fictional events into the canvas, securing them in the realm of materiality. Turning to her family crafts, Maria reactualises the past by playing out alternative scenarios.
Current themes of Arendt’s work are classic “symbols” of 20th-century Soviet avant-garde architecture which she interprets in embroidery - a medium that would appear at odds with architecture.
Embroidered graphics on canvas, a technique artfully used by Arendt, frees architecture from its regular qualities, rendering it subtle and weightless.
As curator Ekatherina Inozemsteva talks about her works: “Perhaps it’s an expression of utopian thinking on her part too. Like a temporary drape, her embroideries give a glimmer of hope that beneath them lies a reality akin to the one which Tatlin, Melnikov, and the Vesnins had envisaged.”
Maria Arendt was born in 1968. In 1989, she graduated from Moscow College of Industrial and Applied Arts with a major in embroidery.
Selected solo shows include the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Moscow, 2020), the Schusev State Museum of Architecture (Moscow, 2014), and Pushkin House (London, 2011).
Selected group shows include the Royal Academy of Art (London, 2022), Iragui Gallery (Moscow and Paris), “Salo” erotic drawing salon, (Paris, 2017-2023), and The State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, 2014).
Maria Arendt's works are in the collections of the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), The State Russian Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Schusev State Museum of Architecture; private collections of Alberto Sandretti (Venice), Nicholas Ilyin (Frankfurt am Main), Brian Eno (London), Pierre-Christian Brochet (Moscow).
CV
Born in Moscow, 1968.
Until 1985 lived in the "Artists' Village" at Maslovka Street, Moscow.
1980s. Was tutored in fine arts by Grandmother Ariadna Arendt, famous sculptor.
1988. Graduated from Moscow College of Industrial and Applied Arts.
1989-1990. Worked as artist-designer. First experiments in the fields of graphic art and collage, studies of iconography.
1989 to the present day. Constant participation in art exhibitions.
1997. Becomes a member of the Moscow Union of Artists (monumental department).
From February 2022, traveling around the world
Illustrates books in her spare time.
Participant of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th Biennale of Contemporary Art
Solo exhibitions
2024
Zwischen Prequel und Sequel, with Zoula Fürst, Ausstellung am Standort von SBB Studien Akademie Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2023
Sky vs. Sky, with Andrey Prigov, BAS CS Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Sur les Routes, with Catherine Charreyre, Iragui Gallery, Paris, France
Out, But not arrived, Common Ground, Erevan, Armenia
Strange distant places, with Andrey Prigov, Alexander Gallery, Forto Rose, Montenegro
Out, but not arrived. India, New Delhi, India
2022
Architextile, Artbridge gallery, Berlin, Germany
2020
Architextile or all sewn up, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
2019
Fabric of the city – Bauhaus, Shtager Gallery, London, UK
2018
Moscow news, Harmony Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel
The other Pushkin, with Natasha Arendt, Alkovi gallery, Helsinki, Finland
2017
Ailleurs, nulle part, Iragui Gallery, with Catherine Charreyre, curated by Simon Mraz, Paris, France
2013
A weirdo's wife's dream, Schmidtmarc Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2012
L’AIR, with Aga Ousseinov, Gallery Frangulyan, Paris, France
2011
Tissus urbains, Gallery L'Aleatoire, Paris, France
Pushkin is our Everything, with Natasha Arendt, Pushkin House, London, UK
2009
Eternal values, with Natasha Arendt, S. Eufemia Gallery, Giudecca, Venice, Italy
2008
Two sisters, with Natasha Arendt, Moscow Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia
Pic & Stitch, with Natasha Arendt and Evgeny Gabriel, HMS President of the Royal Naval Reserve, London, UK
Art fairs
2022 – Drawing now art fair, Iragui gallery, Paris, France
2020 – London art fair, Shtager gallery, London
2019 – Saatchi art fair, Shtager gallery, London
2018 – Art Rotterdam, Iragui gallery, Rotterdam
2018 – Cosmoscow, Roza-Azora gallery, Moscow, Russia
2017 – Viennacontemporary, Iragui gallery, Vienna, Austria
2015 – Contemporary Art Fair Artefiera, Iragui gallery, Bologna, Italy
2014-2015 – Contemporary Istanbul, Iragui gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 – Art Paris Art Fair, Rosa-Azora gallery, Paris, France
2013 – Art Paris Art Fair, L'Aleatoire gallery, Paris, France
2013 – Viennafair, Parallel program, Vienna, Austria
2012 – Viennafair, the Subjects project, Parallel program with Maria Brockstedt, Vienna, Austria
2010 – Art Moscow, the Fabric of the City project, Roza-Azora Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Selected group exhibitions
2023
Show on the go, Ãvrora Studio, Istanbul, Turkey
2022
Threads, Janco Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel
Crossing, Gwangju, South Korea
Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, London, UK
2017-2023 – “Salo” erotic drawing salon, Paris, France
2020
Gifts, The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2017
Fusion, Galerie Iragui, Curated by Donatien de Rochambeau, Paris, France
2016
Russian Contemporary. Drawing. No limits. Russian house of Culture, Savina Gallery, Berlin, Germany, and London, UK
2014
Surgery, Mikhail Alshibaia’s project, Ekaterina foundation, Moscow, Russia
Garden Flame International Women’s Art Festival, Gwangju, South Korea
2013
Artbosphorus Istanbul, Gallery Frangulyan, Istanbus, Turkey
Invitation to dinner, State Russian Museum, Moscow, Russia
2010
Russia! Memory. Mystification. Imagination, Ca' Foscari University, Venice, Italy
Arts Sanatorium, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
ŽEN d'ART. The Gender History of Art in the Post-Soviet Space: 1989-2009, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia
2009-2013
3rd, 4th and 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
2009
Chaos-Space, AIRCRAFT Gallery, Bratislava, the Slovak Republic
Art residences
2022 – Pacha Art Residency, Hungary
1996 – Saint Henri, Toulouse, France