Artistic portfolio
NEWS
PROJECTS
  • Bizarre Family Album (2023 - ongoing)
    Untold Fairytale
    Hamburg Portfolio Review
    Phodar Biennial Winner
    Life Framer Series Award
    Critical Mass Top 50
    CPOY award of excellence
  • The perception of the self (2024)
    Self Love Club
    FAPA bronze
    Life Framer
    PhotoVogue
    CPOY Two awards
  • Stories of emigration from the USSR (2024 - ongoing)
    From Russia to Hope Street
  • Mystical lakescapes (2024-2025)
    Nimueh
    FotoSlovo Honorable mention
    BIFA Honorable mention
OTHER PROJECTS
Biography
Mari Saxon is a Russian-born conceptual photographer based in the USA. With an academic background in the arts and originally working as an architect, she now builds her images with the same sense of structure, through combination of theatricality with humor and echoes of Old Master painting. After relocating to the United States in 2022, Saxon turned fully to photography as her primary medium.
In her practice, Saxon investigates definitions of motherhood, femininity and identity through performative and family collaborative self-portraits. Also she reflects on the multiplicity of identities, imposed norms and habits, and the effects of cultural displacement that are part of immigrant life.
Her work has been published internationally, featured in over forty exhibitions worldwide, and recognized with numerous awards.
In addition to her practice, she leads workshops and artist talks, fostering dialogue on diversity, self exploration, and personal myth-making.
Education
2025-2026 Book[e]lab Laboratory of Book Physicality, online
2024-2025 Docdocdoc Photography school, online
2024-2025 Photography school of Natalya Zhukova, online
2022-2024 Photography school Marusina Masterskaya, online
2019-2021 Author's course of Sergey Maximishin, Moscow, Russia
1994-2000 Moscow State Architectural Academy MA Architecture, Moscow Russia
Newsletter
Honors
2025
  • TIFA Honorable Mention (project)
  • ND Awards 3rd Place Winner in People Category (project)
  • CPOY Award of Excellence in Interpretive Eye Category (project)
  • CPOY Award of Excellence in Interpretive Eye Category (single)
  • CPOY Award of Excellence in Illustration Category (project)
  • BIFA Honorable mention in Fine Art Category (project)
  • Photolucida Critical Mass TOP 50 finalist (project)
  • IV All-Russian Photo Festival "Painting with Light" 1st Place winner in Conceptual category, 3rd Place winner in Contemporary category (singles)
  • PX3 Honorable mention (Self Portrait Category, single)
  • Juror’s Choice Award by juror Conor Moynihan (RISD museum) winner Exposure 2025 by Photographic Resource Centre (project)
  • IPA International Photography Award 1st Place winner (Self Portrait Category, project)
  • A Global Open Call by PhotoVogue 'Women by Women' shortlisted (project)
  • FotoSlovo International Photo Awards two Honorable mentions (Portrait and Climate Categories, singles)
  • Life Framer Colors, Youth, and Open competitions, shortlisted (single)
  • URBAN Photo Awards semifinalist (Conceptual category, single)
  • Lumicroma In Colors Project JOY Award (single)
  • Color Awards 1st place winner (Portrait Category, single)
  • Color Awards nominee (Fine Art Category, single)
  • Fine Art Photography Awards FAPA Bronze (People category, project)
  • Fine Art Photography Awards FAPA nominee (Fine Art category, project)
  • Life Framer Series Award, shortlisted (project)
  • The Image Flow - Best of the Month Award, Honorable Mention (single)
  • XIII International Photo Festival - PHODAR Biennial winner (project)
2024
  • EPEX Europa Photo Exhibition Awards honorable mention (Portrait Category, single)
  • IPA International Photography Award finalist (Self Portrait Category, single)
  • HIPA finalist (B&W Category, single)
  • Photolucida Critical Mass TOP 200 finalist (project)
  • Emerging photographer of the Hamburg Portfolio Review (project)
  • URBAN Photo Awards semifinalist (Streets category, single)
  • Belfast Photo Festival shortlisted (project)
  • Fine Art Photography Awards FAPA nominee (Portrait category, single)
  • Fine Art Photography Awards FAPA nominee (Conceptual category, project)
2023
  • Russian Photo Awards Top 100 (single)
  • All-Russian Festival of Black and White Photography Fotostrelka nominee (single)
  • All-Russian Photo Project of Childhood finalist (single)
Press
2025
  • The Boston Globe article 'At the PRC, sense and sensibilities in ‘Exposure 2025’ By Mark Feeney
  • What Will You Remember Review "Griffin Museum 31th Annual Juried Members Exhibition" by Elin Spring and Suzanne Révy
2024
Artist Statement
of Mari Saxon, photographer, artist, architect.
I always adore noticing the absurdity, surrealism in the everyday, as if reality lifts the edge of its curtain for me, and through this gap, I see the backstage of the scenery. Recognizing the surreal edge in the everyday churn of events keeps me from sinking into melodrama over the losses and upheavals that my family, my homeland, and I are forced to endure.
For my projects, I often construct theatrical tableau vivant — absurd, surreal, sometimes unsettling, even disturbing. I prefer to speak with humor, irony, and lightness about painful experiences, about trauma, about difficult themes. I use absurd imagery and references to classical painting so that my narrative does not turn into mourning or lamentation, but instead becomes a means of overcoming trauma and easing pain.
Exhibitions

ON VIEW

  • Nov 4 - Dec 6 - "Stories in Transition" at Wedeman Gallery, Newton, MA
  • Nov 5 - Dec 14 - "Small Works 2025" at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA
  • Nov 10 - Dec 10 - "Eternal" at Small Format Gallery, Providence, RI
  • Nov 21 - Jan 10, 2026 - "The Art of Dreaming" at Spectrum Art Gallery, Centerbrook, CT

UPCOMING

  • Dec 5 – Jan 4, 2026 - "Winter Solstice" at Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
  • Dec 6 - Jan 6, 2026 - "Critical Mass 2025 Top 50" at Duncan Miller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
  • 24 Jan - 1 Feb, 2026 - "Small Stones Festival of the Arts", North Grafton, MA

PAST

Solo and up to 4 artists shows

  • The solo show at Shrewsbury Public Library, Shrewsbury, MA in 2025
  • "Artists Shoeboxes" at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA in 2025
  • "Rozenman/Saxon/Lim" at Hopkinton Arts Center, Hopkinton, MA in 2024

Juried and curated group shows

2025

  • "Gathering Place: A Family Album" by Griffin Museum of Photography, online
  • "Something Wicked" at East Manning Projects, Providence, RI
  • "Trieste Photo Days" at Porto Vecchio, Trieste, Italy
  • "Resonance of self" at LoosenArt, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy
  • "Impressions: What Is Left Behind" at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery, Worcester, MA
  • "EXPOSURE 2025" by PRC at VanDernoot Gallery, Cambridge, MA
  • IV All-Russian photo festival "Painting with light" at Turgenev Library, Moscow, Russia
  • "Vision(ary)" by Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
  • "31st Annual Juried Members Exhibition" at Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
  • "Joy" at Lumicroma, online
  • "Unfiltered Femininity" at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery, Worcester, MA
  • "Women Tales" at Centre for photography Mart, Yekaterinburg, Russia
  • "Spring Show" at The Curated Fridge, Somerville, MA
  • "13th edition of PHODAR" winners exhibition at The Palace National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • "Focus on Fashion" international exhibition during Cracow Fashion Week, Cracow, Poland
  • "Bizarre and Unusual" at Decagon Gallery, online
  • "Fusion" at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA

2024

"Contacts and Connections" at LoosenArt, online

"Winter Show" at Hopkinton Arts Center, Hopkinton, MA

"Art as storytelling" at Midwest Nice Art, online

"Broken Forms" at LoosenArt, Millepiani Gallery, Rome, Italy

"11th edition of Trieste Photo Days" at International Festival of Photography, Trieste, Italy

"Third Biennale of Black and White Photography MFamilia" in St. Petersburg, Russia

"30th Annual Members Exhibition" at Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA

"100 Photographers to Watch" at Superlative Gallery, Bali Indonesia

"Cinematic Theme" at Panopticon Gallery, Boston, MA

"View Finder" at ArtsWorcester Gallery, Worcester, MA

"Lavish: Gallery Edition", Tenafly, NJ

"Art For Life" Helsinki XR Center, Helsinki, Finland

"Portrait: Self and Others" at PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT

"Dreams And Nightmares" at Boomer Gallery, London, UK

2023

  • "Let Me Be A Child", S.Petersburg Russia
  • "Fotostrelka" Festival of B&W Photography, Borovsk, Russia
  • "FAM's 87th Regional Exhibition" at Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
Publications

2025

2024

2023

2020

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