Maria Buchner was born in Germany and has studied sculpture and painting in Vancouver, Munich, Hamburg and Sydney.
Maria’s poetic work engages a wide range of media and depicts themes of nature, wilderness and civilization. Major projects have included gilding a desert creek bed, building a house from bones and a boat from feathers.
Since travelling to Antarctica in the 2001/02 season, Maria has produced many Antarctic related artworks, paintings, drawings, photographs, collages, and sculptures.
Previous exhibitions of Antarctic works:
- 2007 Belle Arte, Lamia, Greece
- 2005 Art for Action, Arthouse Hotel, Sydney, Australia
- 2003 Informé, Australian Embassy, Paris, France
- Australia Centre, Berlin, Germany
- Impressions of Antarctica, Parliament House, Canberra, Australia
- 2002 Natur und Mensch, Sankt Andreasberg, Germany
Antarctic impression
How magnificently wild and beautiful Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are — beyond imagination — the luminous sky, the evanescent sea, the sense of time and timelessness, snow falling in fine grains… and humans seem quite insignificant, a humbling experience, I still carry it in my heart.
And standing in the icy desert it is hard to believe that millions of years ago it was all covered with forests.
My trip has made me very aware of the fragility of the Antarctic environment, the seas around it, and how easily this can be damaged. I hope for the benefit of future generations that Antarctica’s haunting beauty will stay — wild.
Maria Buchner has been awarded a grant by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York and is currently working on a crystalline book and a star house.
