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  • Fifty Squared Art Prize 2025
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STOCKROOM SPOTLIGHT: ZORY MCGRATH

May 15, 2020

Zory McGrath is a Melbourne based contemporary artist and Master Iconographer born and raised in Bulgaria.

She is formally trained in classical art painting and is highly skilled in various painting forms from photo-realism portraiture to religious abstraction. Zory has been exhibited and taught art workshops across Europe, and is now settled in Melbourne to expand her audience in Australia. Her most recent exhibitions have focused on abstract-expressionism, focusing on identity. In these works, Zory draws parallels to the religious symbolism from her iconography through vibrant palettes, endowing the colours with both expressive and symbolic meaning. 

Zory McGrath’s work can be found in galleries both locally and internationally.

Tell us a bit about what a day may look like for you as an artist. Where are you based and what are some of the things that you do in your daily routine? Tell us about your morning rituals, your cup of tea/coffee, plants, etc!

I’m an early bird so my days generally start with a nice cup of strong coffee. I try to keep a routine so I aim to be at the studio by 9am the latest. I love to work in the morning when my thoughts are flowing and I can start painting whilst is nice and quiet.

How did you start your creative practice and why? Are you self-taught, an art student, a full-time artist, etc? 

I was interested in art and particularly drawing from a very young age. I remember once my mother asked me what do I want to do one day and I answered : ‘I want to work drawing’. Funny, it somehow resulted in what I do for a profession today. My creative journey began formally with apprenticeship in a prominent Artist’s studio at the age of ten, followed by an art school, art academy and finally my Major in Fine Art specialising in Oil painting and Russian Orthodox Iconography Art.

Have you got a studio/creative workplace? Tell us a bit about where you create and some of the significant things that support and inspire your practice.

I use to work from my house for many years... I actually still do occasionally in my garage. I call it my garage art :) However, I outgrow my home space so I decided to rent an external place for my practice. My studio is in a very convenient distance to my home which is a great convenience to my busy life. Having a studio allows me to switch off from all the outside world and give me the focus that I need to my work. Also, I love the fact that I can work uninterrupted as long as I want to and hold private viewings and client visits.

I often draw my inspiration from my day to day life and my immediate environment. Often those are the moments where I don’t think about, they just appear in my sketchbook or when I paint. I have a lot of a ideas and things I want to create. Not necessarily all materialized. Some are just left in the sketchbook that I always carry with me, in case I see something interesting that I’d like to capture for inspiration.

What are some of the ideas that you explore in your work and the mediums that you have chosen to work with?

I can talk about my recent body of work. It’s inspired by the social distance we are all experiencing now. It’s something I didn’t necessarily plan to paint but it just happened. I enjoy exploring the human figure and portrait in a more minimalistic approach. I feel drawn into the mood and the sense of feeling in the image.

I love working in oils, my favourite medium to work with. It holds endless possibilities and the flexibility and textures of the paint is something that I really enjoy.

In an increasingly digitized world, how important is your online presence? And what are some of the things that you consider when marketing your work?

It is pretty important in my opinion, although I grew in times when digital media wasn’t such a popular way to connect  your work to an audience. It was all about the physical paper portfolio and going from gallery to gallery to showcase your work. Funny, it feels like ages ago.

Being present in the digital space gives an artist great opportunities to showcase and connect their work with an audience. However, it can also play a certain level of negative and false perception in my opinion. I always try to maintain balance. I’m far away from being perfectly present in the social media space but I try to keep my creative practice and process as real as possible. I avoid posting thing not related to my creative work. I plan what to post and despite having a lot of material already waiting. I try to organise carefully my images and the narrative to support my work. 

Let us know about any current/future projects – Have you got anything planned in the near future?

 As I already mentioned in one of my previous answers, I’ve been working currently on a series of works that I choose to title, Social Distances.

I am also in preparation for a solo exhibition and a show in Cologne, Germany in July and October. Also, I’m really excited to be taking part for a second year at the Affordable Art Fair in Melbourne this September, represented by one of the Melbourne galleries I’ve been working with for the last five years.

Overall, a busy year ahead.

Visit our Stockroom to view works by Zory McGrath


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