Maria Anna Parolin

Maria Anna Parolin is a material-based artist who has taught at KPU since 2012. She studied at Capilano University (Dip), University of Victoria (BFA), Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, apprenticed with a master printer in Venice, and at the University of Alberta (MFA). She has participated in several art residencies such as Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland), the Banff Centre for the Arts, Art Studio Itsukaichi (Tokyo, Japan) and was awarded a Research Fellowship at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. She is an active community member, president of the Burnaby Arts Council and a proud member of the art/mamacollective that together, published art/mamas: Intermedial Conversations on Art, Motherhood and Caregiving. Her work is published in: Printmaking at the Edge – 45 Artists: 16 Countries: a new perspective (UK); Imaginary Economics – Contemporary Artists and the World of Big Money (Netherlands).  She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Japan, Korea, Sweden, and Italy. Her past work attempted to blur the lines between object and product, fine art and consumer market, by challenging difference and exclusivity on the one hand, and exposing the fraudulence of media and marketing strategies on the other. Her studio is currently filled with jars of ink and pigment made from orphaned plants she adopts from properties slated for demolition in her neighbourhood. All materials are worth saving and manipulating into something useful, beautiful and communal.