Maria Kastan is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on oil paintings, assemblage sculpture, and drawings.  She is native of Brooklyn NY and brought up in a Filipino-American household.  She performed at a young age with the historic Amato Opera House, NYC, performed for RAI TV in Italy, and was inspired to paint by a young artist, a student of Lennart Anderson, whom she watched for hours as he painted her siblings portraits for his graduate exhibition.  She went on to study with Lennart Anderson, as well as William T. Williams and more at Brooklyn College where she received her MFA.  She received a teaching scholarship as a graduate student, and had further study at Chautauqua Artist Residency with Stanley Lewis and Deborah Kahn.

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Kastan's artwork focuses on figural themes, spiritual concern with the human journey and the potential for momentum. She seeks to cut unexpectedly across subjects in ways that invite active response—whether suspicion, investigation, memory or surprise. Strangeness is the invitation to the viewer. Since strangeness also proposes an optional reality, she proposes imagery that creates a series of small visual disturbances to allow viewers to seize a sensation, release from external systems, and to relay individual memory.

 

Maria Kastan has shown her artwork at the Arad Biennale, Romania, Tuscon Desert Art Museum, The Seligmann Art Center, The WAH Center and in several international galleries in France, Italy and Japan.  She has permanent work in public collections such as the MIDAC Contemporary Art Museum, Italy, Brooklyn College CUNY Library, The Brooklyn Art Library, with a mural at Lincoln Hospital, Bronx, NY.  Her work is collected by private companies and individuals globally.  

 

Kastan has recently shown paintings and sculptures at ART MIAMI 2024 with Binoche Fine Art Gallery, NY, and you can find her work at several auctions on ARTNET.