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‘ Marta Alexandra Abbott is a Czech-American artist based in Rome. She uses organic, botanical materials to extract and convey that which she finds essential to the human experience of nature and beauty. Marta does this through combing concept with intuition, elements of control with those of contained chaos, and with eyes scanning both earth and sky, seeking ways to interpret that which links the two. ’

 
 
 

ARTIST STATEMENT

Marta Alexandra Abbott is a Czech-American artist in Rome. Her fascination with the natural world and our relationship with it today as well as throughout history, has always informed her work. Marta’s mediums and methods are interdisciplinary, but focus on water and oil based mediums as well as organic matter on paper and canvas. She often uses inks and pigments she makes herself from natural substances found and foraged from both wild and unexpected domestic spaces. 

Process and experimentation are fundamental to her practice, which wanders in realms that exist between microcosms and macrocosms. Marta examines the connections between them through their decontextualization and the positioning of different worlds next to each other. For example, the discovery of a cosmos in a field of flowers. She gives form to that which moves between earth and sky, which is to say also through us, and which is recognizable but not always identifiable. Primitive links to the natural world around us are excavated and communicated in a new language. The concept of materiality in Marta’s work extends beyond that which can be examined with the eye and turned over in one’s hand. Marta is interested in discovering and communicating the substance of the immaterial, of experience, time, light, spirit and transformation. Marta’s work tends to dwell in realms outside of established categories, combining the conceptual with the intuitive, research and information with spontaneity and uncontrolled experimentation, the search for beauty alongside an appreciation for change and decay. In what she creates, Marta hopes to provide a chance to experience our surroundings and ourselves differently, and celebrates the ways we use the natural world, of which we are a part, as an instrument for connection, communication and interpretation.

 
 

BIO

Marta Alexandra Abbott is a Czech-American artist born in Amsterdam, raised primarily in the U.S., and currently based in Rome. Marta grew up in the studio of her artist mother, studied fine arts at university, and trained professionally in the fields of art restoration and floral design before turning her full attention to painting. Her fascination with nature has always informed her work, which investigates our human relationship with the natural world. Process and experimentation are fundamental to her practice, in which she primarily uses inks and pigments she makes herself from organic, botanical substances. This has led to a deeper study of the language of color and of the life of organic matter as channels of expression and communication. Marta has exhibited her work in New York, Prague and Rome among other cities, and most recently completed an artistic residency followed by an exhibit at Numeroventi in Florence, Italy. Prior to this, she had the opportunity to complete a residency and show her work at the historical printmaking studio, Fondazione il Bisonte, also located in Florence. She has participated in collaborations with creative brands as well as with other artists. Her work has been written about in various publications and was featured in the book Make Ink ( Abrams Press) by Jason Logan of Toronto Ink Company, and her paintings are in private collections around the globe. She participated in the making of an upcoming documentary about the use of color derived from nature throughout the history of human civilization which is set to come out in 2022.

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

December 2021 - Pietra viva, Divario Gallery, Rome, Italy

October 2021 - Floralism Festival, Rome, Italy

October 2021 - Open House Rome, Rome, Italy 

October 2021 - Rome Art Week, Dylan Tripp Studio, Rome, Italy

September 2021 - Many Solo Shows, group show, Numeroventi, Florence, Italy

July 2021 - Group show, Linguaggi contemporanei della stampa d’arte at Fondazione Il Bisonte, Florence, Italy

July 2021 - Future Horizons, Group Show, Castello Carducci, Castagneto Carducci, Italy

May 2021 - Liminal Forms, Collaborative works with Nicolas Denino, Cappella Marchi, Seravezza, Italy

December 2020 - Particolare di Paesaaggio, group show, Contmeporary Cluster, Rome, Italy. 

October 2020 - Natural Landscapes, Rome Art Week, Marigold, Rome, Italy.

October 2020 - Stargazers, Cimitero Acattolico di Roma, Rome, Italy.

October 2020 - Edit Napoli Design Fair, presenting collaborative project with Naessi Studio, Time, Framed, Naples, Italy

October 2020 - Floralism Festival, Portuense 201, Rome, Italy

January 2020 - L’arte del Sottobosco, Sottobosco, Rome, Italy

October 2019 - Floral Echoes, Works Gallery, New York City, NY.

May 2019 - Flora Mundi, Sala Margana, Rome, Italy

October 2018 - Floral Echoes, Rome Art Week, Etabli, Rome, Italy

March 2018 - Impermanent Forms, Forms, Tibet Open House, Prague, Czech Republic

November 2017 - Impoermament Forms, Galerie Pavilon, Prague, Czech Republic 

RESIDENCIES

Spring 2022 - Residency at Giancarlo Di Trapano Foundation, Sezze Romano, Italy

May 2021 - Residency at Numeroventi, Florence, Italy

April 2021 - Artist Residency, Parco dei Sesi, Pantelleria, Italy

March 2021 - June, Artist in Residence, Fondazione Il Bisonte, Florence, Italy

August 2019 - Momochi Residency, Benton Harbor, Michigan

February 2019 - Numeroventi, Florence, Italy