Marianna Gefen lifting a wet sheet from the desk in her studio, shelves of prints and books behind her

Open studio: a visit with Marianna Gefen

Marianna Gefen has been painting since she was five. Today, she teaches Fine Art herself. Her work appears in galleries around the world and in leading publications from The New York Times to Vogue. A conversation about her fear of the white page, the personality of old paper and why sometimes the best thing an artist can do is stop.

Discover the editions
Marianna Gefen drawing in red on a sheet of vintage paper at her studio desk

On Marianna Gefen's desk, everything has its place. In her work, chance does too.

Pencils, charcoal, and ink lie ready beside the same watercolour set she got on her fifth birthday. What you won't find is a blank page: Gefen prefers paper that already comes with a history. Every sheet she draws on has been somewhere first: a flea market in Spain, a stationery shop in the former East, a pad that belonged to a schoolchild fifty years ago.

We asked her to take us across the desk.

Watercolour, ink, charcoal, pencil. And the set I was given when I turned five, which I still use. I like materials that carry a little risk. Ink does what it wants once it touches wet paper, and that is exactly the point.

An open drawer of inks, brushes and pencils in the artist's studio

I am a huge admirer of femininity. My dissertation explores feminism too, particularly the visual worlds of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Those delicate lines combined with very strong colour, it simply works for me. I can draw men. Do I enjoy it? No.

Blue Moon: a standing figure washed in deep teal and black ink over a pencil drawing on aged paper

Blue Moon

Restless: a figure in blue ink standing against a saturated red ground

Restless

Bloom: a figure with a magenta wash across the body on pale aged paper

Bloom

Favourites hanging above a walnut sideboard in a bright Parisian apartment, tall windows and a green velvet sofa opposite
Favourites in museum format, 180 × 90 cm
The artist working across several sheets at once, a loaded brush in hand and ink jars beside her

I travel a lot. In Spain it was flea markets. In Berlin, old East German paper, school notebooks, pads. You are never starting from zero, there is already a personality in the sheet, a history. If someone posts that they have fifty pads, I buy them like a madwoman.

That is the most important point. I am always telling my students: do not kill the painting. It happens easily if you keep working on it for too long. What I have developed is a kind of instinct for the right moment to stop. And I stop very quickly.

Midnight Blue: a figure turned away, deep navy ink washed across the shoulders on aged paper

Midnight Blue

Three framed works from the Essence series hung in a row above a walnut sideboard in a sunlit room

Essence works at home

Ten or twenty at a time. One day pencil, then the first layer of colour, another the next. Out of twenty I might like two. On a good day, perhaps as many as fifteen.

Marianna Gefen smoothing a large sheet covered with more than a hundred small colour studies

A direct insight into how I work. We really chose my favourites, especially the ones where something unplanned happened: a hole, a mark. People think that mark was placed deliberately and ask what it means. But sometimes it is just a fingerprint. I find that incredibly amusing.

Yes, I need order around me. Chaos would distract me. My art is where I make room for what I cannot control.

The living room of the artist's flat, a long shelf of books and framed posters above a grey sofa

All works by Marianna Gefen

Visit the artist page
To save your wishlist, sign up now.
By signing up, you agree that we may use your data. More information can be found in our privacy policy.

330,000+ SATISFIED CUSTOMERS

ONLINE AND IN 19 GALLERIES WORLDWIDE

60 DAY RETURN POLICY

Seems like you're not in your local shop
Switch to your local site
Ensure regional pricing, language, and delivery.