Artist's Statement
Step into the unsettling world of the forsaken! With watercolors, and occasional experiments in oils or digital painting, I navigate the delicate dance between beauty and decay, capturing the haunting allure of lonely, abandoned buildings, crumbling statues, and eerie landscapes. Each painting is a story; a fragment of a forgotten dream or half remembered lullaby, whispering tales of places that stand in quiet defiance of time’s relentless march. I explore the uneasy liminal spaces that lie between the familiar and the unknown, where memories fade like distant echoes and history lingers in the air like dust motes dancing in the last rays of the sun. Let the shadows whisper their secrets in your ear.
Bio
Mariah Masilko grew up in Grand Forks, ND and graduated from Central High School. At the University of Oklahoma, she studied architecture for two semesters, then moved to Minneapolis and received a BA in Studio Arts from the University of Minnesota in 1997. She had pieces in the North Dakota Museum of Art Silent Art Auction in 2002 and 2006 to 2009, 2014, and in the Autumn Art Auction in 2008 and 2014. In 2006 she and photographer Mike Mohaupt exhibited Forgotten North Dakota at the Third Street Gallery in Grand Forks. From January through June of 2007, Forgotten North Dakota was displayed at the Heritage Center at the Capitol in Bismarck. Mariah had a painting in the Foot in the Door 4 exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and her work was on display at Artifex Manuum Spa & Gallery in uptown Minneapolis from October 2010 through January 2011, and again in 2014. One of her watercolors was shown at the Minnesota State Fair in August 2012. Her work was again at the Third Street Gallery in September 2012 along with the photography of Emma Katka in an exhibit entitled Whispers. She won first place for her photograph of Island Station in the Reflections on Ramsey exhibit at the Landmark Center in St. Paul, which ran from July through December 2014. Her work was featured in two exhibits sponsored by Springboard for the Arts - Lake Region in Fergus Falls, MN: Essence of Memory & Space: Art Inspired by the Kirkbride in 2014, and Beauty is Therapy in 2015. In 2016 she had three pieces in the show Art of Darkness: Inspired by the Paranormal at the Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts in Fridley, MN.
Mariah regularly participates in the St. Paul Art Crawl and Art-A-Whirl in Northeast Minneapolis. She is always creating new things in her studio that doubles as a dining room!
Mariah regularly participates in the St. Paul Art Crawl and Art-A-Whirl in Northeast Minneapolis. She is always creating new things in her studio that doubles as a dining room!
