User:Claire.Albertolinerogallery/sandbox

Maria Sultan
Maria Sultan is a New York based artist currently residing and painting in Woodstock. Sultan received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film from New York University, School of the Arts, and in 1987 worked on an MFA in a program adjoined with the San Francisco Art Institute. Although closely identified with the Abstract Expressionists, the years living and painting in San Francisco helped define and develop her particular vocabulary of line, form, and color. Sultan, deeply influenced by the work of Richard Diebenkorn and the California School, returned to New York where she opened a studio in the East Village. Soon after, Sultan  created  an urban art project in Spanish Harlem with  Alianza Dominicana—A  program of fine art for Latin American youth struggling against drug and gang involvement -  giving creative voice and safe haven to their individual  and collective experience through the visual  arts. This experience indelibly impacted her life and her art, and is reflected in her paintings.

Maria Sultan received her training at The Art Students League of New York and the Woodstock School of Art. Sultan has been in various group shows and has won many juried awards including most recently the 2013 “Red Dot Show” http://theartistinyou.typepad.com/taiy/2013/06/the-art-students-league-of-new-yorks-annual-red-dot-exhibition.html

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representing work  judged  best  of the Art Students League. Sultan is a member of the National Association of Women Artists,  member  of  the Directors Guild of America,  and member of the Woodstock  Artist Association and Museum. Apart from her achievements as a painter, Sultan has been the recipient of  two Emmy awards  for her  work in network television. Maria Sultan’s work is held in many private and public collections in the United States and Singapore.

artist statement
The work references an atmospheric condition, the power of being a woman and all this entails – what I have seasoned, and weathered, and birthed – a hard won freedom. I paint and draw intuitively – flat planes, extreme splashes of rich color, the subtle variance of grays, straight-up magenta, small elegant childlike lines that read as a language, a forceful linear structure, and the beauty of the female anatomy all find their way invariably into my work. I prefer the displacement of space, conceptually like writing on a wall. I am obsessed with rich color and for me this is a journey unto itself. For that reason I combine the lushness of pastel in conjunction with wet media; gouche, watercolor, oil and acrylic. Painting with a fervor and kinetic inspiration – a frame in time, a fully captured moment, full of life, love, reflection and excitement. I am a lover of truth and prefer everything layed out on the table, exposed to the light, filled with nuance and detail. My paintings reflect the balance between chaos and peace. Mostly though, I have gratitude every single time I reach for a pastel or pick up a pallet knife…..thankful for every stroke of the brush. To be an artist requires an unusual grace in life….and if asked….the journey is truly worth it. Maria Sultan

Recent and upcoming shows
2013

Featured artist: Alberto Linero Galleries Art District, Wynwood, Miami, FL 2013-2014

Art Student League, Shane’s Collection, North Carolina

Woodstock Artist Association and Museum (group shows) Hudson Valley Finds, Rhinebeck, New York August 2013 thru January 2014

2014

Featured artist: Alberto Linero Galleries

Art District, Wynwood, Miami, FL  2013-2014 High Point University, Sechrest Gallery          2014 -2015

Watson McCrae Gallery, Sanibel, Florida January 2014