by Deana Wilfong
Marika Popovits, a longtime Crestone resident and painter, will show her work at the Shumei Gallery in Crestone for the months of November and December. A symposium with Popovits will be held on Sunday, Nov. 19, starting at 3 p.m. A reception will follow.
Popovits was trained very early in art by her architect father and later by a portrait painter. Several great teachers at the Universities of Denver, Syracuse, and Southern California enabled her to break through the boundaries of the visible. In due time, she was exhibiting in galleries in Munich, Berlin, Rome, and in the United States in New York, Sedona, and Taos. After a rich and busy career, she no longer wished to work publicly, which prompted her seclusion here in Crestone for the past 20-plus years.
Popovits stated, “My vision as a painter working in the medium of the early Renaissance is to reveal the hidden and diaphanous nature of reality, painted in a contemplative immersion and translating it to the viewer in a similar state. They appear as abstract but are not, since what they depict is immaterial and beyond form or even symbols. Translating the formless is the creative transmission of an artist who is equally free of identity.”
While Popovits is known for her large-format paintings, this show will consist of recent work in smaller print form as well as watercolors.
Come visit with Popovits and learn more about her work on Sunday, Nov. 19 from 3 – 5 p.m. This event is free to the public. Please visit www.shumeicrestone.org or call 719-256-5284 for more information.
Photo: Truth composite by featured artist Marika Popovits. Courtesy of Shumei