BIOGRAPHY
Marna Shopoff is a United States based visual artist with an emphasis on abstract painting and intuitive drawing. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Master of Fine Arts degree from Herron School of Art and Design, Indianapolis, IN, where she has taught as an instructor in the Foundations and Drawing Programs. Interested in the concepts of design and spatial relationships, her work explores the idea of perception, place identity, and visual memory.
Marna has led panel discussions on abstract learning and haptic drawing at the Foundations in Art Theory and Education Conference (US) and the International Drawing and Cognition Symposium (UK). She is the recipient of various honors and awards, including The Individual Artist Award | Indiana Arts Commission, the Mildred Darby Menz Award, and the Stutz Resident Artist Award. She has taken part in artist residencies at locations across the US and Europe including the Leveld Art Centre (Norway); the Vermont Studio Center (VT); Teton Artlab (WY); Taliesin, The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture (WI); and the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture (Italy).
Marna’s work has been published in print circulations including ArtMaze Mag, Create! Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine, Manifest and Blue Canvas. She has taken part in exhibitions both locally and internationally (solo, group and collaborative), and has participated in art fairs including PULSE New York (NY), the Miami Project (FL) and VOLTA12 Basel (Switzerland).
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work is a visual expression of place perception.
To me, life is fragmented and layered, a mosaic of experiences interwoven with reflection and intuition: the places we visit, the homes we live in, the environments we explore – each overlapping and influencing one another. Through abstraction, shape, color, and scale I render a refracted visual reality, allowing color’s role to come to the fore.
Some colors we keep with us – they define our memories and influence our perception of place. That fabric swatch. That afternoon light. Or maybe that green which was never really there, perfectly encapsulates how we felt the first time we walked through that door or looked through that window.
My vibrant display of geometric abstract paintings explores the concept of spatial identity, translating how place and experience uniquely intertwine. The encounter is subjective, but the abstracted, refracted image dangles the possibility of connection – where my individual perceptions and yours might meet and be shared.
