Biography

Born in 1956 in the southern Polish city of Wadowice, Marysia Burr began her study of art at the Bielsko-Biala High School of Fine Arts, from which she graduate Magna Cum Laude. She then moved to Warsaw and entered the Polish Academy of Fine Arts where she majored in Graphic Arts with special emphasis on painting and drawing.

Her early art experience was greatly impacted by association and study with two of Poland's outstanding artists: Henryk Stazewski, whose abstract painting focused on the use of lines, light and color, and Eugeniuz Markowski, one of her Academy professors who shared with her not only his skill as a painter of realism and expressionism, but the energy and motivation that is so much a part of art. She was also impressed with American artists, most notably with the bold formal style of Dutch-born Willem de Kooning - one of America's preeminent Abstract Expressionists.

Marysia became a well-known artist in Warsaw and was the recipient of many prizes for her realistic portrayals of the human form, presented in oils, watercolors, and pencil. She graduated from the Academy with a Masters degree in art in 1981, and shortly thereafter emigrated to the United States.

After settling in southern California, Marysia's artistic focus changed from the portrayal of human figures to landscapes and nature forms, and increasingly incorporated light, color, and shapes in a continuous spiral of motion. She sought to resolve the intrinsic dichotomy between realistic and abstract art. This is apparent in both the color and composition of her paintings.

In her blending of these two conflicting approaches to art subjects, Marysia begins with a realistic approach to her subjects, choosing essentially unremarkable scenes and objects to paint. As the work progresses, she subtly introduces the counterpoint of some abstract shapes and colors, which release the painting from the confines of rigorous realism and allows the viewer's imagination to embrace not only the reality, but the dream as well. This is what makes her work so exciting and what makes her images remain in your mind long after you have left the gallery.

Marysia has shown her work across America and in Europe, having had one-woman shows in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, West Germany, and Poland. She has participated in more than 20 group exhibitions over the past ten years, including the Contemporary Artist's Exhibition in Seoul, South Korea. Among Marysia's professional achievements are the 1988 "Diploma of Excellence" for outstanding quality in oil painting, presented by the International Art Competition sponsored by Art Horizons in New York City, and in the same year, the "Diploma Di Merit" for her oil painting, "Skipping Stones", entered in the International Art Exhibition in Viterbo, Italy.

Marysia Burr has forged a very distinctive style be creating brilliant and expressive pieces. As her reputation grows, her work is expected to be a vital point of interest in museums, private collections, and art galleries throughout the world.