Ross Marina
Main achievement
Painter based in Iowa, United States of America, Winner of the Downtown Iowa City Mural Design Competition 2018.
About
Marina Ross, born in 1990 in Chisinau, former USSR (now the Republic of Moldova), is an internationally renowned painter based in Chicago, USA. A graduate with a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012 and an MFA from the University of Iowa in 2018, she explores profound themes such as memory, myth, identity, cultural trauma, and personal loss in her oil paintings. Her works, often ethereal and dreamlike, reinterpret iconic imagery inspired by The Wizard of Oz, American tragic actresses like Judy Garland, and immigration experiences, and have been exhibited in prestigious galleries in New York (Sugarlift, Art Helix, Highline Stages) and Chicago (Goldfinch Gallery, Heaven Gallery, The Franklin), as well as at DOKA Contemporary Arts in Japan. Her achievements include notable grants and awards, such as the Illinois Arts Council Individual Artist Support Grant, Loyola University Professional Development Grant, and the Stanley Award for International Graduate Research, which facilitated an artistic residency in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2017. Her works have been reviewed in Newcity and Chicago Reader, are held in public and private collections, and she has been teaching drawing, painting, and printmaking at Loyola University Chicago since 2015, following experiences at the University of Iowa, Mount Mercy University, and Roosevelt University. She also leads Chicago Crit Club, a critic group for professional artists, and has curated exhibitions such as Emerald City, promoting the artistic community. As a Russian-Jewish immigrant artist, Marina Ross integrates her experience of acculturation in the US, the American Dream, and the pressure of traditional feminine beauty as a form of social protection into her work. The tragic loss of her two-year-old son, Rafi, in the summer of 2022, intensified her exploration of the body's fragility and trauma, transforming her art into a space for emotional processing. Today, she continues to create series such as Evergreen, Emerald City, and Everything Was Forever, available through galleries like Tappan Collective, inspiring through her resilience and artistic depth.
