BASHA MARYANSKA

Education:

MFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Gdańsk, Poland

Subjects studied: European Art History, Painting, Sculpture, Tapestry, Composition, Photography

École du Louvre, Paris, France – one year studying Renaissance masters

Fellowship:

Kościuszko Foundation, New York City, USA

Works in Permanent Collections:

National Museum of Gdańsk, Poland

Kazimir Pułaski Museum, Warsaw, Poland

Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Williamsburg Museum of Art Center, Brooklyn, NY

National Museum of Artistic Books, Łódź, Poland

Work in Private Collections:

France, England, Poland, Canada, USA, Japan

Awards & Distinctions:

International Photography Biennale, Barcelona, Spain

Golden Owl Award for artistic achievements and curatorial work, Vienna, Austria

National Biennale, Hilton Head, SC – Finalist

EWAAC International Show, London, UK – Distinction

Vienna, Austria - Golden Owl Award for artistic achievements and curatorial work

My odyssey as an abstract painter began at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Poland, where I earned my Master of Fine Arts degree and first learned to trust the power of color, form, and intuition as a visual language. That foundation deepened through years of immersion in the great museums and galleries of Europe—studying Renaissance masters at the Louvre in Paris, standing before the sweeping collections of the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery in London, and losing myself for hours in the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Mauritshuis, and the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague. These encounters with the masters—their light, their courage, and their humanity—became a living part of my artistic education, and their influence continues to breathe quietly through every work of art I create.

My American artistic journey began with an exhibition at the Kościuszko Foundation in New York City—a debut that felt both like a homecoming and a bold beginning. From that first showing, my work found its way into galleries across Manhattan, to the walls of Harvard University, and to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, entering into conversation with audiences across cultures and continents. My Polish roots and my life in the United States have since woven themselves into that European inheritance, shaping a visual language that carries many worlds, many histories, and an enduring belief that abstraction can speak directly to the soul. Receiving the Golden Owl Award in Vienna, Austria, for promoting Polish culture in the world remains one of the most deeply meaningful honors of my life—a recognition not just of my art, but of the bridge I have always tried to build between my homeland and the wider world.

Equally close to my heart has been my work organizing international artist residencies—in St. Augustine, Florida; Beacon, New York; Green Valley, Arizona; Taos, New Mexico; as well as in Warsaw, Gołuchów, Myślenice, and Kraków, Poland. These residencies have been spaces of transformation, where artists from different countries and traditions are given the time, community, and freedom to create without limits. I have always believed that an artist given room to breathe will surprise even themselves. Watching that happen—seeing artists arrive as strangers and leave as collaborators and friends—reminds me, repeatedly, why I have dedicated my life to this work. Art is not a solitary act. It is a conversation across borders, and I am grateful every day to be part of it.

Basha Maryanska - Solo Exhibition with piano concert - The Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY

Carriage Barn Gallery, Waveny Park, New Canaan, CT

“Sonata on Canvas” - Painting as Musical Interpretation in the Work of Basha Maryanska. Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY.