Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

Today's  guest, Marina Ross is a Russian Jewish artist, and her paintings draw upon her experience of acculturation, The American Dream, and the trauma inherent within it as well as traditional feminine beauty, as a form of social capital, assimilation, and protection. These notions of power and control of the feminine body and the performance of femininity saturate Ross’s work. 

A few months back, I was in Chicago, and had the opportunity to swing by ArtRuss Gallery, where Ross’s latest solo show, Emerald City, was opening the following day. Ross walked me through her exhibition after which, we sat down and recorded this conversation. 

Ross and I discussed painting on paper, curating Emerald City, control and agency, working in bursts, accountability partners, community, cofounding the NYC Creative Salon, and her most recent work with the Chicago Crit Club.

Ross also speaks openly about the loss of her son Rafi, and about painting’s role in coping with trauma. 

About:

Marina Ross is an artist, instructor, and curator based in Chicago, IL. She earned her MFA in painting from the University of Iowa in 2018 and her BFA in painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Her work has been exhibited in New York at Sugarlift, Friday Studio Gallery, Art Helix, and Highline Stages and throughout Chicago at Goldfinch Gallery, Heaven Gallery, The Franklin, Sulk, and Baby Blue Gallery, among others. She received The Stanley Award for International Graduate Research from The University of Iowa and attended the Saint Petersburg Artist Residency in Saint Petersburg, Russia (2017). Her work is in numerous public and private collections. She runs a critique group for professional artists in Chicago and teaches art at Loyola University Chicago and Roosevelt University.

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- About the Podcast -
       
host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann
 
guest: Marina Ross
www.marina-ross.com/
insta: @marinaross_studio