“Bodies drift across her canvases like memories trying to stay.”
The Stillness That Moves
Maria Naidyonova’s paintings introduce themselves quietly, then linger with unexpected power.
The Berlin based artist recently presented the project 12 Rooms with Kewenig Gallery, had a solo exhibition at Feinart Berlin, appeared in several group shows, participated in Paper Positions with The Gallery by La Lüpertz and won first place in the Copy Paste competition by The Curators Gallery.
Let's take a closer look into Maria's world, where experiences surface subtly in her mixed media practice, as drawing and painting merge into a single language.
Charcoal lines move across acrylic and pastel in ways that feel both swift and reflective.
The classical foundation beneath the work holds steady while her attention to intimacy, emotion and social detail gives each composition a contemporary charge.
Her canvases invite the question of how painting can still carry human connection and hold it long enough for the viewer to feel it.
Maria Naidyonova: On the left: Lovers, 200 × 150 cm and on the right: Twilight, 150 × 110 cm and . Image courtesy of the artist.
Gestures That Talk Before Words Do
The figures in her work often appear mid gesture as if something has just happened or might still unfold.
A hand pauses on a cheek, a shoulder leans into a body, an embrace forms and dissolves at the edges.
These scenes feel tender and aware of their own fragility. She allows early marks to stay visible which gives the paintings a slight vibration, a sense that the bodies inside them keep shifting even when the surface is still.
Looking becomes a process of following thought before it finds language.
Series as a Way of Observing People
Her practice moves through long running series that help her trace the emotional and social rhythms around her.
Friends and Lovers focuses on relationships and the small sensual or vulnerable moments that define them.
Berliners looks outward with a humorous and observational eye shaped by her encounters in the city. Rivals opens a symbolic space where meaning remains fluid.
Through these lenses she captures people in fragments, letting their behaviors, desires and contradictions sit without instruction.
A Practice Built on Drawing and Improvisation
Drawing shapes every step of her process. Pencil marks begin the conversation, then charcoal, pastel, acrylic, spray, oil or collage enter the surface as the painting develops.
She moves between sketching, enlarging and improvising with a rhythm that keeps spontaneity alive. She does not treat preliminary studies as strict guides.
Instead she lets the painting respond to its own energy. This keeps the work animated, as if each figure might shift position once the viewer looks away.
About Maria Naidyonova
Maria Naidyonova is a Ukrainian born Berlin based artist working across painting, drawing and animation.
She studied at the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kyiv and later at Kunsthochschule Weißensee in Berlin where she completed her Master of Painting.
Her work brings together classical technique and contemporary sensitivity, capturing emotional nuance and the social textures of daily life.
Why This Work Matters
Naidyonova’s work matters because it gives intimacy a form that feels honest rather than polished.
She looks at relationships, passing encounters and tensions of urban life with a precision that grows from lived observation.
The mixed media surfaces reveal how emotion collects in gestures rather than grand moments.
In a time when images move quickly, her paintings slow the viewer down and invite a longer look. They remind us that human connection is still worth holding still.
A Quiet Return to the Question
Her paintings turn back to the idea that intimacy is never a fixed state. It deepens when lines overlap and softens when gestures shift.
Her figures stay open to interpretation, offering meaning as the viewer approaches.
Through this she answers the question at the center of her practice.
Painting can still capture the pulse of human connection.
It does so gently, without spectacle, and with the kind of care that lingers.
Follow Maria Naidyonova on Instagram and visit her website.
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