Mary A. Waters

Mary A. Waters is an Irish artist whose work reimagines Western European painting traditions from the 14th to 19th centuries through a contemporary, critical lens. Drawing on classical portraiture and historical motifs, she examines how cultural power, colonialism, and identity are embedded in visual representation. By appropriating and recontextualizing these historical images, Waters challenges dominant narratives and interrogates who is seen, remembered, or valued in art history. Her paintings often feature figures removed from their original contexts, inviting viewers to reconsider the constructed nature of authority, legacy, and cultural memory. With precise technique and nuanced symbolism, Waters transforms familiar iconography into complex, multilayered statements on power and perspective. Her work opens a dialogue between past and present, offering a reflective space in which historical aesthetics are reframed to question contemporary understandings of representation and identity.

Submitted by Galerie Sturm & Schober