Artistic expression has been serving as a therapeutic means since man picked up a charred stick in a cave. It’s an ancient notion, immanent to humans. However, history and chance made it so that we’ve become aware of art as a remedy only when the period of modernity ensued, which — interestingly — coincided with the first serious breakthroughs in psychology. Today, art is a common and welcome therapeutic form, used to help with different (mainly) mental problems.
Art, as the paramount expressive form with a powerful therapeutic capacity, is the path Marika Thoms chose after recognizing the need for self-actualization and development within herself.
Marika Thoms – It’s Pink
Embracing an Artistic Freedom
Born in 1990, Marika Thoms is a legal assistant turned artist. After completing training in art therapy and graphic design, she decided to dedicate her time to art completely since last year. As a freshly emerged artist, she embraced freedom as her core influence and brought a new energy to the scene presenting works filled with color and life.
Inspired by her feelings, thoughts and surroundings, works she creates are abstract, but more akin to action painting than any form of early abstraction. Washes of bright, unapologetic color share a glimpse of her inner world transmitting the intuition of the artist beyond the canvas. We can say her work is entirely lyrical and process-based, as Thoms listens to her mind and body in the studio and outside of it.
Marika Thoms – Early Spring
A Self-Therapeutic Practice
Observing her practice as from botht he material and conceptual standpoint, we can see that it’s profoundly impacted by the postulates of art therapy. Fascinated by the application and behavior of the paint itself, engulfed in euphoria of creation and allowing her body to follow the process viscerally, Thoms pours glimpses of self onto the canvas, delivering an entire palette of emotions, from joy to melancholy. She uses paint, spraypaint, scratching, dripping, typography — a mix of various techniques to bring her vision to life .Even the prevalent color in her art — the all-encompassing luminous orange — came to the artist as she was meditating before an art therapeutic session. Unrestricted, focused and deliberately framed, abstractions Marika Thoms creates leave us energized and encouraged to become just as free.
Marika Thoms – Magic Palm Beach
Marika Thoms at Discovery Art Fair
An emerging artist, Marika Thoms is accepted in her native Germany, but is looking forward to an international career. Her work raises significant interest at the moment and she is planning an exhibition in Rome, Italy, as a representee of Konsum 163 Gallery from Munich.
She lives and works in Gardelegen, a town in Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany.
Her works will be displayed at the Discovery Art Fair Cologne, from April 25-28, 2024.