Maja Taneva was born in Skopje, North Macedonia on 04.12.1984.

      She graduates and gains master qualification in  sculpture on the Fine Art Academy in Sofia-Bulgaria. After finishing the education she started working for the project" Skopje2014"

      Whit the gain experience in bronze and stone her hunger for experimenting and exploring new and different materials for modeling continues, in the process she is discovering the lifting equipment materials as a suitable, strong, soft and feminine on the other side for her sculptures. She has been awarded first place for "Experimental drawing "

     She is Published artist on three coloring books for adults.  

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The story:

   I started creating art when I was 10 years old. One of the first art play moments that I had was melting wax candles and modeling them into shapes, mixing the colors, making them to be alive again, to be able to be lithen, then and now I am driven by aesthetic beauty.

(yes aesthetic is individual and this is my story)

 

    The experience in the Art Academy was exceptional, from modeling lifesize clay sculptures, plaster molds, ceramic casting to the process of my graduate thesis to be a 3 meter stone carving sculpture which is still in the yard of the national Art Academy in Sofia.

 

    While still in master studies I was offered a position in a sculpture studio for modeling monumental sculptures, casting in bronze. This experience gave me the possibility to create my master thesis exhibition in 13 bronze sculptures from my first serie” Kali” The specific part of this presentation was that all sculptures were modeled from wax. I believe that this was one of the first points of realization for experimenting with materials, discovering different possibilities.

 

   The experience in the “monumental sculpture studio” lasted almost 3y. Somehow I managed to find a very good deal for very small gallery space in the center of the city, next to the city museum, perfect, started creating my art and having informal educational art classes. Beautiful times, having small decorational projects in mall spaces, experiencing a fun and very successful event in “Skopsko Leto” in the yard of the small gallery space, where I have presented a 3 meter installation of “melting kali” and this is the space where by accident I have discovered the industrial wire rope as a modeling material, it attracted me with its clean silver color the swiftly shape in all lines and the magical play that produces in sunlight.

 

   From hеre “Strings of Iron” was born.

 

   Unfortunately the gallery space was demolished, the city decided on that place to create a fancy mall & hotel, despite all our efforts to keep all those small stores to be the art soul of the city.

 

   From this point my wandering journey began, I was not able to find another price suitable place to continue to exist as an independent artist, sign up a contract as external collaborator to “Open Civil University for long life learning ” and started teaching as a day jab, art teacher in school.

I was lucky  all this experience led to the possibility to be part of the best private educational system in the country. Amazing experience. But with all this focus on educating others and managing two jobs I have realized that I have forgotten about my creativity, always struggling to find extra moments, minutes to sketch, paint something small or if I find some energy maybe to model something  and this struggle started to lead me to being exhausted and depressed more and more.

I have realized that I have stopped smiling. 

 

   And this was the breaking point.

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   Started to go with my family often on weekends in the woods, to have long walks...started to question myself, is this what i want for my life? Of course not, I am an artist and need to create.

 

   So I decided to quit my teaching job and use an old family house a little bit outside of the city as a studio space. Luckily I announced my resignation in December, the school accepted it and unfortunately in February the world experienced Covid-19.

 

   Despite everything I have a beautiful humble studio space, very close to the city  where I am isolated and focused on creating.

 

 

Why strings of iron? 

   Strings of Iron is a pure abstract shape, transparent at some points, light, soft and unique by its existence.

“Strings of Iron “ was born as a process of discovering new possibilities, learning about the straightness of a line, and the beauty of a strong industrial lifting equipment material. 

 

What spectrum of emotions do they deliver?  

   Abstract shapes that are allowing every individual to continue and create their own story.

Positive, Beautiful, Soft, very often they are described as Feminin sculptures. On the opposite side strong (the wire itself is Iron or stain&steal) knitted together they are projecting universal calmness and extension of the viewer story itself . 

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