Balkan Culture

Mariva Zacharof

Mariva Zacharof is a dynamic visual artist who is nationally and internationally awarded. She develops a visual language by using expressionist drawing, installation and mixed media to depict human issues, which concern all of us. Her work has a strong sense of humor, sweetness and intensity.
Mariva Zacharof was born in Athens, Greece in 25/02/1978. Raised in Liege of Belgium and studied Fine Arts in Great Britain. Currently lives and works in Athens, Greece. She is a member of the Hellenic Chamber of the Fine Arts, and her work is part of several Archives of Greek Museums and Foundations for the Contemporary Greek Artists. She has publications both in the local and the international press. She was a fellow of the Shillizzi Foundation for the realization of her studies and secured prize money to produce artistic work from the Sidney Perry Foundation.
On November 2008, she had her first Solo exhibition "Childhood Dreams", with Astrolavos art gallery in Athens, Greece. On December 2016, she had her second solo exhibition entitled "Life has a lot of Grey shades" with the Municipality of Piraeus, Greece. On December 2017, she had her third solo exhibition entitled "The Child that lives within ourselves" with the Municipal Gallery of Kallithea "Sophia Laskaridou". From 1st February till 5th of April 2018 she had her fourth solo exhibition in the Municipal Gallery LEFA of Psychico, Athens, Greece, entitled "The Tree and the River". On 2011 she took part in the International Biennial of collage and assemblage in Serbia. She represented Greece on 2012, in the 5th International Beijing Biennale, China. In the year 2013, she took part in the X-Border Biennial between Lulea, Rovaniemi and Severomorsk. In 2018 she takes part in the 17th INTERBIFEP International Portrait Biennial in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She exhibits in International Art Festivals in Greece, Europe, USA and Asia since 2001.
She is also an art pedagogue. As a pedagogue she has done her volunteer art teaching practice in Woodlands High School, Ely, Cardiff, UK with 120 children of special needs aged 6 to 18. Her project was based on Picasso and Primitivism in Art and on the Aboriginals (theory and practice were equally given).

Mariva Zacharof has also worked in Greece with the Municipality of N. Philadelpheia (2007 - 2010) running the children's art workshop (mainly painting, drawing, collage and 3D crafts with children aged 4 to 12) and the adults painting workshop (drawing and painting). She has collaborated with the Municipality of Athens (2014) running voluntarily an art workshop with adults of special needs (mainly Down Syndrome, low IQ, Autism and Schizophrenia) and has conducted art workshops in Tunisia (2016) while participating in an international Arts Symposium in Hammamet. In Bangladesh she ran in 2017 the art workshop called "Learning from the Child" with 80 children aged 4 to 12.

As an art pedagogue Mariva Zacharof believes that she has to prove herself to children prior them following her tasks. She has to earn their trust and increase their confidence. She develops a system of teaching art from life exercises, memory, narration and sound. The exercises are given according to a schedule and Mariva always explains to children the value of each exercise, while trying to cultivate children's imagination in a playful but effective manner. Theory and history of Art are also introduced to children through specific painters and sculptors to raise questions and increase observation.

All children are free and need to feel free in order to create. They have to be respectful though to themselves and to one another, never correct each other's work and never discriminate each other. There is a lot of team work and team projects on large scale paintings were children have to work together but focus on the final result to be harmonious.
Mariva Zacharof has an archive of drawings and paintings from the three main workshops she conducted in Cardiff-UK, N. Philadelpheia-Greece, Paril Nawada-Bangladesh and wishes to write a constructive study based on the children's progress.

For further information on her works you can visit her website: www.mariva-zacharof.com and follow her Fb page: Mariva Zacharof Visual Arts
you can contact her on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.