Marketa Sivek

Marketa Sivek was born under communist rule in Czechoslovakia and witnessed the Velvet Revolution in Prague before emigrating to the United States in 1992. She had been studying Archival Science at the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague when she left for America — and left those studies behind to pursue painting, which had been her stated ambition since fifth grade. She is self-taught as a painter.

Sivek works in oil and acrylic on canvas, often mixed directly onto the surface, layering heavy paint with graded brushwork. The work is abstract landscape — Icelandic landscape, classical music, and graphic design are stated influences, and houses and other structures recur as metaphors for shelter and for circumstances that can change on a dime. She has been featured in Elle Decor, American Art Collector, and Fine Art Connoisseur, and shows through Fringe Gallery, Slate Gray Gallery, and JG.