Born in Chicago in 1970, Maria Vanik has been a member of the West Town studio since 2017. Prolific, imaginative, and diligent in her creative practice, Vanik draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, including the natural world, pop culture, allover patterns, religious iconography, and art history. These varied interests inform her highly inventive, saturated marker drawings on paper, defined by a distinct approach to rhythmic composition and repetitive mark-making. She frequently produces multiple iterations focused on specific subject matter, and routinely cycles through ongoing series simultaneously. Vanik’s extensive body of work seamlessly combines representational elements with pattern-based abstraction. Over the past several years, her work features recurring symbolic imagery—often incorporating ubiquitous motifs like hearts, raindrops, flowers, clouds, and crosses as central subjects or decorative elements.
“I like to make artwork. The colors are very very bright. I like to use markers to draw raindrops, a rainbow, a tree. Next time I will do it different. I like to start with a white blank background. I like to use bright colors with dark colors. I like to use a lot of them, and mix them together.”