Art Bio 

Maria Macko (b. 1990, Krakow, Poland) is a visual artist and photographer. In her photographic practice, she focuses on alternative processes like cyanotypes, van dyke brown and printmaking to create images that exist between imagination, materiality, and emotional response. Maria is currently an MFA candidate at Northern Illinois University; she holds a Bachelor of Arts in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. She has exhibited her work in group exhibitions, at Woman Made Gallery, Chicago Fine Art Salon, Robert A. Peck Gallery, College for Creative Arts, Statewide Illinois Artist Showcase, Water Street Studio, and Kavanagh Gallery. Her photography has also appeared in publications such as Horizons Magazine, books: Utopia on Wabash and Lost in Interpretation: Hans-Georg Gadamer’s View on Contemporary Culture and Art, and on Tiger Woodstock’s Afterlife album cover.  She has worked as a photographer assistant for Jonathan Castillo, contributing to set design, lighting, and model direction. Currently living in Genoa, Illinois, with her three boys and two felines, Macko continues to create and exhibitwork that reflects her evolving identity as a woman artist, immigrant and mother.