Overview
Slovakian photographer Mária Švarbová creates hauntingly still images of women in Socialist Era public swimming pools. Her work on the series In the Swimming Pool earned her a 2018 Hasselblad Masters Award in Fine Art Photography. Her signature style merges cool stillness, a striking color palette and unspoken tension. Early on, her photographic work moved from traditional portraits to capture wider topics, generating works with unmistakably characteristic atmosphere. Addressing the loneliness and isolation of contemporary life, her work manages to be both non-sentimental and emotionally powerful. Mária Švarbová was born in 1988 in Slovakia. She studied conservation - restoration and archeology, however since 2010 she has been dedicated to photography as her main tool of artistic expression. She lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Works
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Jump 3 (VI) -
Geometry
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Ball Movement
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Deep, Horizon
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Big Group
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No Diving II. Horizon
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14
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Big Group 2
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7 - Horizon
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Horizon
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No Diving (Horizon)
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Ten Girls
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Origins
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Balance
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Empty Street
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Desert
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View II
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Madeleine
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Mountains
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Red Swimmer
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Playing
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STOP
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View
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Windy
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Derivation 1, Grössling - City Bath
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2, Grössling - City Bath
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3, Grössling - City Bath
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4, Grössling - City Bath
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5, Grössling - City Bath
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6, Grössling - City Bath
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Absolute Pink Bar
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Border II
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Empty Pool - Horizon
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Horizon - Yellow
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Pool Without Water
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Red Head
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Greta
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Greta/Barbora
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She (12)
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She IV
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Smykacka
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Wheel
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Underwater
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Trinity
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Tree
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Symmetry
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Swimming
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Swimmers
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02
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4,00m
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Clock
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Chill
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Harmony
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Harmonization II
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Girl Power I
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Jumper
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Jump, Jump, Jump
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Jump 3
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Alone
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Red Cap
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Zvolen
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Is There an Absolute Plane?
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Infinity
Press
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Swimming pools as utopia: the photos of Maria Svarbova
Enrico Ratto, Domus, 5 August 2022 -
Visually Pleasing Swim Portraits Capture the Hypnotic Symmetry of Indoor Pools
Margherita Cole, My Modern Met, 26 March 2021 -
Lost in the Valley by Maria Svarbova
MODESTAS MANKUS, Our Culture, 21 April 2020 -
Mária Švarbová finds beauty and serenity in socialist-era swimming pools
Allyssia Alleyne, CNN, 23 March 2020 -
Surreal Swimming Portraits Highlight the Eye-Pleasing Symmetry of the Indoor Pool
Sara Barnes, My Modern Met, 3 September 2018 -
Maria Svarbova: In the Swimming Pool
Juxtapoz, 9 April 2018 -
Synchronistic Images Captured in Soviet Era Swimming Pools by Photographer Maria Svarbova
KATE SIERZPUTOWSKI, Colossal, 18 September 2017 -
The water's lovely: eerie Slovakian swimming pools – in pictures
The Guardian, 20 July 2016
Publications
Video
Exhibitions
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Deck the Walls
Group Exhibition 11 December 2023 - 24 January 2024Each December/January Gilman Contemporary celebrates the diversity of the artists they bring to Sun Valley with their group exhibition, Deck the Walls. This dynamic group show teases upcoming feature exhibitions...Read more -
Mária Švarbová
Yesterday's Future 15 June - 15 July 2020Renowned for her Swimming Pool series, which launched in 2014 and continued through 2018, Svarbova’s aesthetic has become instantly recognizable. Her style departs from traditional portraiture and focuses on experimentation...Read more
