Working under the pseudonym of Aria Baró, Mária Svarbová is a young Slovakian photographer born in 1988. She originally studied the preservation and restoration of artworks, and archaeology, in her native country, before devoting most of her time to photography in 2010. It is this major interest in the fine arts that has given her the freedom to juxtapose a number of aesthetic fields and to devise photographs full of dreamlike and surrealist qualities. The photographer began by producing portraits capturing the expressions of her models, characterised by a sense of endless nostalgia. As for her current work, it satirizes our modern world in the manner of stark paintings in which characters are frozen in inexpressive postures. Mária Svarbová’s portfolio never fails to fascinate, and she has garnered prestigious collaborations with international fashion or photography publications (Vogue, DOHDO, FotoVideo) and numerous distinctions, including the gold medal for excellence at the Austrian photography fair, the Trierenberg Super Circuit.