Maria Arias

My name is Maria Arias, I was born in Venezuela, and I started painting at the age of 8 years old. Because of the hard schedule of the school, I went to, I stopped painting at the age of 12. I followed engineering studies and graduated in 2003. The next year I moved to France, running away from the chaos of my country, and leaving everything behind. I arrived in France with nothing, not even the knowledge of the French language. I finished doing my master’s degree and got a Ph.D. in chemistry.

In 2007, I moved to the Netherlands where I could finally feel at home again. I work 4 days as a Chemical Engineer and almost 3 days as an artist.

I started painting again in 2016. Furthermore, I started with a basic acrylic course at , and then I learned by myself for a while. I took several workshops and masterclasses with several artists. My favourite artist and teacher is Marissa Oosterlee.

As an animal defender

During an exhibition in 2007 at the Gallery Codex Nicaragüa, A man pretending to be an artist presented a “work” that made me wake up and decide that actions shall be taken from now on to help animals. In a gallery, he exposed a stray malnourished, and scary dog to the visitors. The dog was part of his art, and on the wall, i...

Chemical Engineer
PhD in Chemistry