"Snap Dragon I" by Maria Szakats features a vivid blue textile background with soft, blurred botanical forms in earthy hues. The felted texture gives a tactile, three-dimensional quality to the work, blending craft and fine art. The composition centers around natural motifs, possibly seed pods, creating a dynamic contrast against the smooth backdrop. Szakats employs a style that merges textile art with contemporary abstraction, reflecting her transition from fashion to a focus on the intrinsic value of material and process. This piece explores the intersection of craft, material, and artistic expression. ...
Born in Romania in 1984, Maria Szakats is an Austrian artist who graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs and now lives and works in Paris.
Working mainly with textiles and using a wide range of techniques, she produces works combining textiles and installation, and attempts to create a tension between craft, image and material. After fifteen years' experience as a stylist in the fashion industry, Maria Szakats decided in 2021 to refocus her work on purely artistic considerations, developing a practice that questions notions of value in terms of production time, value, use and material. ...
