Maria Szakats was once a fashion designer, but changed careers to become an artist. Her chosen medium is mohair wool, which makes sense given her background. The way she creates artworks is intriguing. The subject matter is AI generated, as she selects images randomly-generated by artificial intelligence based on how they interest her. Szakats then painstakingly recreates those images by needlepoint embroidery. This technique is like painting pixel by pixel, and the intermediate image appears almost digital. Then she uses a brush to partially separate the small mohair fibers and give them direction, obliterating the pixels and giving her images a dreamy, ethereal, and almost surreal appearance.
Szakats creates a number of images before decoding a particular theme, which leads to grouping the works into a series. Her recent exhibition at Galerie Chloé Salgado in Paris consisted of anthropomorphic images of plants and animals. Read about Szakats and her woolly artworks at It's Nice That.