MARIA MERAK

Maria del Viver Garcia De Olaortua (Maria Merak) is a Spanish fashion designer and a multidisciplinary artist born July 19, 1989 in Barcelona, Spain. Graduated the world’s most known Art School, she got her BFA from Parsons The New School of Design in New York City at a very young age. She says “she was re-born in New York City at the age of 18”. She is a direct talker and thinker “I do talk about everything, I am not scared of reality, I have never been, although I do fear indifference”. She states that she could have never challenged herself artistically if it wasn’t for her pillar , “ the only person who firmly supported me through winds and storms and who truly knows my true story who really I am. He put standards high and is for him that I worked this hard.” Like a true artist, she not only embraces the golden moments of life but she also embraces the darkness in it, in a interview for a group exhibition she was part of in LES she stated “I believe everybody has a dark story and making it yours and bringing it to light is what makes us unique rather than hiding it, it is also what set us frees. Often as viewers and the listeners we don’t need details in order to feel things, art is the same thing; often we create a meaningful piece of art which is self explanatory not because it is necessarily explicit in it’s form but because the person in front of it gets it, and that is the ultimate form of sending a message through. That for an artist is success. ”. “ I am a truly admirer of complexity and the beauty that comes from it, living abroad turns people into more tolerant human beings, Paul Motian once told me that old souls travel young”.

After fine art and jewelry studies taken between Parson,  FIT NYC, and Korea Town Studios in New York City, Maria presented her very first Design Portfolio at her 19 years old.  In 2010 her first jewelry collection and mixed media art collection was selected at Parsons School of Design in New York City and at the same time she was active in the New York Art Scene, worked for New York City based designers, she assisted on commissioned art installations for Björk's house in Iceland, and was the main researcher, assistant designer and buyer for the new concert attire for musicians from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The cooperative project between the BSO and Parsons was started in 2012 to rethink the traditional tuxedos and black dresses of the concert hall. Derrick Cruz, threeASFOUR, Teen Vogue and and Vogue US  where she quickly met some of the fashion world's most influential and inspiring mentors. After meeting her mentors she soon realized “she would never look at things in the same way again”, she mentioned in LES 2015 “it’s people who make your journey remarkable, and certainly I have had great mentors whom I will owe everything for the rest of my life, no matter how deep life can get whatever you learn from others can’t be taken away from you” .

She soon learned she needed to keep translating her love and attention for detail towards her jewelry creation. In 2015, after graduating from Parsons form a BFA Interdisciplinary program in Integrated Design with special focus in Fashion Design, the designer decided to leave New York behind with her dream “to get re-inspired and fill my life with new experiences” and devote herself to create her first collection of four delicate sapphire rings. “I wanted to do something on my own and I did, even thought I was used to team work and the journey for this new challenge was lonely for only one person the collection took off immediately and had a good response”  "In a world filled by uncertainty, Love is the only assurance. If you make something with love it will be beautiful it will be true, and I like to be surrounded by beautiful things".

Currently Maria is living in Miami and continuing growing her career as Fashion Editorial Stylist, Influencer, and Designer. She calls her brand "my baby", from Maria Merak she explores the delicate art of Jewelry Design and create unique commissioned wedding rings for dreamers and lovers. She is currently taking her work further “I am currently working into a life restrospective and something beautiful will come out of it". On her most recent talk at the New World School of the Arts she mentioned “my aunt who passed away taught me that love is unconditional, and I do want to translate that into my love for art making every single thing with true, unconditional love. If I am not going to inspire someone then I should be not doing it.”

Maria currently closed her e-commerce and it’s working on her second collection. She is currently accepting custom made orders.