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- Beneath the Surface
Maria Charkina
Beneath the Surface evokes the image of a ruined fountain that has lost its original function. Within its ruins, memory of the original form persists, even though the structure no longer exists in its initial state.
Fragments of the construction float on the surface of dark water—a metaphor for deep oblivion—and in this unstable state, they create multiple versions of their arrangement.
In the context of contemporary realities where destruction has become part of everyday life, this work can be read as an attempt to process loss and the transformation of memory.
Maria Charkina was born in 1999 in Odesa, Ukraine, and currently lives and works in Kyiv.
Education
2023–2024 — National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (NAOMA), Kyiv, Master’s degree, Monumental Painting
2019–2023 — Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts (KhDADM), Bachelor’s degree, Monumental Painting
2015–2019 — Grekov Odesa Art College, Junior Specialist, Easel Painting
Selected Group Exhibitions and Projects
2025 — NOI, Institute of Contemporary Art Problems, Kyiv
2025 — NOI, Bereznytsky Art Foundation, Kyiv
2025 — Adult Youth, Serpen` Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2025 — Entrance Doors Barely Ajared, Vitallya Exhibition Space, Odesa
2025 — Charity Auction, Bereznytsky Art Foundation, Kyiv
2024 — 4–8, Center Gallery, Kyiv
2024 — Lost Equilibriums, Center Gallery, Kyiv
Artistic Practice
Charkina explores the themes of the loss of everyday meaning, the artificiality of contemporary actions, and the preservation of memory associated with valuable objects. Her focus is on quotidian actions—those we perform almost automatically, without questioning their purpose. She investigates action as a symbol, where movement becomes equivalent to an object. Simple processes may appear absurd yet transform into ritual.
In both painting and video performance, she draws on imagery from Ukrainian proverbs, translating linguistic formulations into material gestures and referencing the cultural code.