I currently live and work in Greenwich, CT. I was born in 1981 and raised in southwest Russia, a peaceful place with the mysterious appeal of the dense forests where I discovered a rich world full of life. Motivated by reasons right and wrong, economics and social structuring, humans have violated the natural harmony. Making this discord between man and nature manifest has become the inspiration behind much of my art.

As my formal education in art progressed, I was finally able to express my love for nature using the full litany of tools available to an artist. I started playing with breaking up the shapes of the human body. The silhouettes of Alberto Giacometti’s sculptures inspired me to play with the thickness and liquidity of the ink in my drawings. After a while, I realized I was subconsciously making my lines resemble twigs and branches.

In much of my work, both figurative paintings and sculpture I indulge nature to play with the human forms and states. The materials, colors, geometry of presentation are all summoned for that purpose. The question of what it means to be human against the barrage of civilization, good and bad, is a topical aesthetic and philosophical pursuit of mine.

—Masha Semenenko

Experience

• School of Visual Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graduated in 2017
• 2017 Once Upon a Time, SVA Chelsea Gallery, NYC
• 2017 SVA Chelsea Gallery Grant
• See my portfolio here.