Karina Bania is an abstract painter living and working in California. Her practice was shaped through extended periods of living abroad, including time in India, where she began studying and incorporating local pigments and dyes into her work. Working on raw canvas, she developed a signature language of stained washes and restrained forms. Her paintings explore the space between movement and stillness, where presence unfolds through balance, tension, and atmosphere. Forms emerge and recede within fields of color, echoing landscapes carried in memory and creating spaces that invite stillness within continual change.
There is a distinct harmony of intuition and intention in Bania’s work. Transparent pools of color and gestural marks feel both inevitable and deliberate, as if discovered and composed simultaneously. Through instinct and restraint, her compositions hold movement and stillness in equilibrium. The placement of each mark and gesture becomes a point of convergence, giving rise to a quiet sense of transcendence.
CV
KARINA BANIA | karina@karinabania.com
BIOGRAPHY
b. Menlo Park, CA
Lives and works in California
EDUCATION
1993 Bachelor of Science, San Diego State University, CA
1998-2000 Studies in Visual Arts + Textiles, Calcutta, India
2001 Studies in Visual Arts at UCSD, California
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026 Maybaum Gallery, Continuum solo exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2025 Uprise Art, Grounded, two-person exhibition, New York, NY
2025 Kennedy Contemporary, Illuminating Space, three-person exhibition, Newport, CA
2024 Maybaum Gallery, solo exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2023 Uprise Art, Keepsakes, group exhibition, New York, NY
2023 Art Market San Francisco, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 Maybaum Gallery, two-person exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2023 Art Central Hong Kong, Uprise Art, Hong Kong, China
2022 Perspectives Space, group exhibition, Encinitas, CA
2022 Art Central San Francisco, Maybaum Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2022 Glass Rice Gallery, solo exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2021 Uprise Art, Make Arrangements, group exhibition, New York, NY
2021 Glass Rice Gallery, Impressions of Her, group exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2021 Anne Irwin Gallery, Together, three-person exhibition, Atlanta, GA
2019 Nest Gallery, Red Bank, NJ
2019 Communal Gallery, Solo exhibition, San Diego, CA
2019 Chief Showcase x Uprise Art, New York, NY
2019 Adams Ave Art Walk, San Diego, CA
2019 Modern Citizen Showcase x Uprise Art, San Francisco, CA
2019 Design Within Reach Showcase x Uprise Art, NY
2018 Affordable Art Fair, One Kings Lane, New York, NY
2018 Holiday House NYC, One Kings Lane, New York, NY
2018 Furbish Studio Solo Pop-Up, Raleigh, NC
2018 Anne Irwin Gallery, Pattern Play, group exhibition, Atlanta, GA
2018 Dixon Rye, Atlanta, GA
2018 Anne Irwin Gallery, Small Works, group exhibition, Atlanta, GA
2018 The Kitchen Table Showcase x Uprise Art, New York, NY
2017 BOW, The Midway Gallery x Uprise Art, San Francisco, CA
2017 Prelude Projects, The Echoing Green, group exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Anne Irwin Gallery, Women and Art, group exhibition, Atlanta, GA
2017 The Affordable Art Fair NYC, Uprise Art featured artist
2017 Elliott Fouts Gallery, Positive/Negative, group exhibition, Sacramento, CA
2017 West Elm Showcase x Uprise Art, New York, NY
2016 The Midway Gallery, Terrain: Navigating Landscapes, group show, San Francisco, CA
2016 Sea Contemporary Gallery, Topography of a Swim, two-person exhibition, Rosemary Beach, FL
2016 Kit & Ace, solo exhibition, Carlsbad, CA
2015 Kettle & Stone, solo exhibition, San Diego, CA
2015 Teeter, group show, San Diego, CA
2015 Gulf Labor West, group exhibition, Chicago, IL
2015 Abracadabra, Joshua Tree Art Gallery, Joshua Tree, CA
2014 Southern California/Baja Norte Regional Exhibition, San Diego Art Institute Museum, San Diego, CA
2014 Art Walk, San Diego, CA
2014 Haggus Society Los Angeles, Alta Dena, CA
2014 Biennial Roadshow Marfa, Marfa, TX
2014 Gulf Migrant Labor, San Diego, CA
2014 Cake Gallery, group show, San Diego, CA
2013 La Jolla Art Festival, La Jolla, CA
2013 Art Walk, San Diego, CA
2013 San Diego Central Library, permanent collection, San Diego, CA
2012 Art Between the Hours, Project X Gallery, Solana Beach, CA
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
MAYBAUM GALLERY, SF
UPRISE ART, NY
KENNEDY CONTEMPORARY, CA
SELECTED PRESS
The Motherhood of Art Book, published 2020
Unexpected Color: Society & Culture, Modern Luxury Magazine
The Circle of Creation, Maker’s Magazine
Art of Living, LUXE Magazine
Drawn to Style, San Diego Magazine
A HomeMade Home - Maker interview, Zillow
Featured Artist, Studio Visit, Vol 31
Artist Interview, Blue Locket Art
KPBS video & article, San Diego Central Library
Central Library Opens, Union Tribune, San Diego
The Canvas-er: Karina Bania, Rivera Interiors