Maria Gabankova

Maria Gabankova was born in former Czechoslovakia and grew up with her brother Jan in the family of the artists Antonia Laník-Gabanek and Jozef Gabanek. Following the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 Maria's family left for Austria and later immigrated to Canada. She now lives with her husband Aleš Březina in Toronto. Since 1978 she has exhibited extensively in Canada, U.S.A and internationally. Recent solo shows include Sculpture Time, Rentz Museum of Baroque Print, Kuks, Czech Republic 2017-2018, Home/ Residents & Dissidents, at Loop Gallery, Toronto 2016, Not Leaving in Ostrava, Czech Republic 2014. In 2007 British Publisher Piquant Editions published Body Broken/Body Redeemed, a selection of Maria’s works, with 68 pages of reproductions in full color and an introduction by John Franklin. From 1991 till 2015 Maria was an associate professor at the Ontario College of Art & Design University in Toronto, teaching figure drawing, painting and portraiture. Portraiture holds a special focus in the artist's practice with an impressive record of commissioned portraits of well-known figures of the Czech and Slovak cultural scene as well as for the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. www.paintinggallery.ca