Maria Loboda

Maria Loboda is a contemporary artist known for her conceptual installations, sculptures, and site-specific works. Loboda's creative inspiration is drawn from art history, anthropology, mythology, and the occult.

Biography of Maria Loboda

Maria Loboda was born in Kraków in 1979. She studied at Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt from 2003 to 2008 and was a guest lecturer at the Zuricher Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Zurich in 2015-2016. Currently, she lives and works in Berlin and Kraków.

Loboda's exceptional talent and artistic endeavors have been recognized and supported by esteemed institutions throughout her career. In 2008, she received a scholarship from the Dresden Cultural Foundation of Dresdner Bank, a prestigious honor that provided crucial backing for her artistic pursuits. Continuing her trajectory of success, Loboda received another significant scholarship in 2010, this time from the Hessische Kulturstiftung (Hessian Cultural Foundation).

In 2012, Maria Loboda's remarkable talent and artistic contributions were acknowledged when she was chosen to exhibit her work at Documenta 13, one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions.

On February 24, 2017, Maria Loboda's inaugural institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland commenced, marking a pivotal moment in her artistic journey. The exhibition, titled "Maria Loboda: Havoc in the Heavenly Kingdom," served as a captivating exploration of her distinctive creative vision within the Swiss art scene.

In 2019, Maria Loboda's highly anticipated individual exhibition opened at the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle. Titled "Siedząc Tutaj Znudzona Jak Lamparcica" (Sitting Here As Bored As A Leopard), the exhibition signaled a significant milestone in Loboda's artistic journey. 

Loboda's contributions to the art world extend beyond her scholarship achievements. In 2019, she played a pivotal role as one of the artistic leaders of the renowned Volcano Extravaganza.

Some of Loboda's selected solo exhibitions include "The Year of Living Dangerously" at ECHO Cologne (organized by Wschód) and Parcours in 2022. Maria Loboda's works offer a unique perspective on reality and the material world, interpreting them as a universe of signs and meanings.

Maria Loboda's Art Style

Loboda uses objects, illustrations, installations, and audio recordings to create a symbolic lexicon for today's world in a natural and social context. Her works investigate the connections between material things and the spiritual realm, between rationality and mysticism. She is interested in the symbolic connotations of physical objects in relation to time and history. Her works employ means of expression typical of various fields of art, such as sculpture, installation, or drawing.

Maria Loboda's art practice revolves around the meticulous examination and recontextualization of old symbols and iconography, embodying a distinct conceptual approach often referred to as "contemporary archaeology." 

Maria Loboda's artistic repertoire encompasses a rich tapestry of diverse ideas, ranging from Art Deco to alchemy, mythology to historic military formations, the occult, to even references to Iggy Pop.