Maria Vintilescu (aka Mariamanuela) (1959). A well established Swedish post war artist, living and working in France since 1988. Graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Etienne. She started her career in theatre, but in late 1990’s changed direction and began presenting pop icons. She derives her inspiration from classic Japanese woodcuts and their motifs of fantastically coiffured, cherry-lipsticked women, dressed in exquisitely patterned kimonos. What she presents for the viewer are modern young Japanese women. In 2000 her Flower Year suite was exhibited in the Stockholm Spring Show at Liljevalch’s Gallery. These twelve female portraits were published in booklet form accompanied by Japanese haiku poetry interpreted by her father, Jan Vintilescu. Since the exhibition at Liljevalchs in 2000, her Pop Icons have been exposed at galleries, art fairs and museums in Europe and elsewhere, including the Tokyo Art Factory in Japan, at Villa Tamaris-Centre d’art in la Seyne-sur-Mer and at SOMA Museum of modern Art in Seoul. She is a highly sought after artist.
