Maria Tolia was born in Athens, and is currently based in Glasgow. She works in a range of media including drawing, painting and printmaking. The result comes in the form of art books, installations, workshops, collaborations, and participatory projects.

Her work is playful and dreamy, yet melancholic. Her practice operates as a journal through which she shapes her feelings, dreams, and thoughts. She uses drawings, paintings and writing from the stream of consciousness as her source material, to then edit and form into bigger more complete projects.

Since moving to Scotland she has developed a special connection with the outdoors that she didn’t have the chance to, growing up in a big city. Using her bicycle as a mode of transport, she seeks to experience the Scottish landscape and paint the connection with herself and the place she now calls home. She combines these endeavours with imagery she  draws from her life in Greece, may that be memories, the lyrics from a song, folk traditions like reading the coffee, and of course the love for the sea.