Maria Kostenko

Maria Kostenko is an artist based in Montenegro. Classically trained at the Venetsianov Art School in Tver, Russia, she continued drawing and painting throughout her life, despite spending 25 years outside a professional art career. After moving to Montenegro in 2022, Maria returned to painting as her primary practice. In 2026, she presented the solo exhibition Through the Shimmer of Summer at Art Studio Wave in Budva, Montenegro.

Maria works primarily with landscape and botanical imagery, using light as the central element of her visual language. Sunlit fields, forests, water, flowers, and atmospheric natural spaces become less about depicting a particular place than preserving the sensation of being there. Her paintings often combine recognizable forms with softened edges, luminous reflections, and bokeh-like points of light, creating an atmosphere suspended between observation, memory, and dream.

Her classical training remains visible in her attention to composition and the natural world, while her approach to color and illumination gives the paintings a more subjective, contemporary character. Flowers carry distinct moods; landscapes appear through haze and shimmer; water becomes a space for reflection and transformation. Across these subjects, Maria Kostenko is interested in fleeting moments that cannot be held in reality but can be prolonged through painting.