About Galina Marcus, Contemporary Figurative Painter

About Galina Marcus

Contemporary Figurative Artist

What Shapes My Work

My paintings are shaped by a life lived across cultures, identities, and seasons of change. Growing up in Russia, building a corporate career, immigrating to the United States, leaving that career behind, becoming a mother, and creating spaces that support artists have each transformed the way I see myself and others. Along the way, I studied fashion design and psychology, two disciplines that continue to influence my curiosity about identity, perception, and the inner lives we carry beneath the surface.

Whether I am painting, hosting conversations with artists, or building community through the San Diego Art Directory, I return to the same questions: How do we come to know one another? What shapes the invisible impressions we carry of people? And how can painting give form to what cannot be seen?

For me, these pursuits are not separate. They are different ways of exploring the space between physical reality and perceived reality.

From Russia With Love… to Art

Hi, I’m a self-taught artist, a mental wellness advocate, and an environmental enthusiast. I was born in Moscow in the mid-80s where I lived and worked until moving to San Diego, CA in 2015.

While painting and drawing since early childhood, I only began pursuing a career as a professional artist in 2018 when I decided to join San Dieguito Art Guild in North County San Diego.

I left my corporate marketing career of two decades to devote myself to making art and serving the art community as best I can. Since 2021, I’ve been hosting a podcast, called In The Art Scene where I interviewed art professionals from all over the world about their personal journeys and career paths. In 2023, using my marketing skills and passion for the local San Diego art community, I launched sandiegoartdirectory.com and founded a non-profit of the same name. Its mission is to support access to and promotion of the local arts and culture in San Diego County and Tijualna.

I am an active member of the Carlsbad-Oceanside Art League (COAL) and am also showing my work in group exhibitions around San Diego County.

You may find my work in private collections in the United States, Canada, and on the European Continent.

What is the relationship between physical reality and perceived reality?

My work explores the space between physical reality and perceived reality.

I paint portraits and still lifes as representations not simply of how a subject appears, but of how it is experienced. We instinctively form impressions of people that extend beyond their outward appearance. We sense qualities that cannot be measured or fully explained, creating internal portraits that often differ from physical likeness. Through distortion and abstraction, I seek to give those unseen perceptions a visual form.

Each painting begins with personal experience. The complexities of womanhood and motherhood, moments of emotional intensity, and questions of spirituality all shape my work. Yet my intention is not autobiography. I hope to create space for viewers to recognize something of themselves, their own perceptions, memories, and inner lives, within the work.

While my paintings remain representational, I intentionally move away from literal description. By allowing intuition to guide form, color, and gesture, I explore the tension between what is visible and what is deeply felt, inviting the viewer to look beyond appearance and consider the invisible dimensions that shape our understanding of one another and the world around us.

Selected Experience

Founder, San Diego Art Directory (SDAD)
2023 – Present
Podcast Host, In The Art Scene Podcast
2021 – Present
Independent Marketing Strategist
2019 – Present
Corporate Marketing Executive
2003 – 2019

Curatorial Projects

Tell Me a Story: A Visual Memoir by Bea Gold, Nov-Dec. 2025, Jewish Community Center, La Jolla, CA
Resilience in Action, Oct. 2025, the inaugural SD Climate Week event, Vista, CA
Co-curator: Heidi Digert
Homegrown Art Beat (HART), Sept. 2025, Union Hall Gallery, San Diego, CA
Co-curator: Blanca Lucia Bergman
Stages of Womanhood, March 2025, Artist & Craftsman Supplies, San Diego, CA
Co-curators, Artists: Michelle Lubin and Galina Semenova
Vibrant San Diego Small Image Show, Sep. 2024, San Diego, CA
Collaboration with Artist & Craftsman Supplies

Exhibitions

LMNL Gallery pop-up, Aug. 2025, Union Hall Gallery, San Diego, CA
Stages of Womanhood, March 2025, Artist & Craftsman Supplies, San Diego, CA
Light In Darkness by MWA, Sep. 2024, Expressive Arts Gallery, San Diego, CA
Splendid Summer, Jul. 2024, Ashton Gallery (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA
Art and Poetry For Nice People and Good Dogs, Feb. 2024, Space In Between, San Diego, CA
Beach Party, July 2023, Ashton Gallery (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA
Daffodil Dreams, Apr. 2023, Ashton Gallery (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA
Triumph, Oct. 2022, Hera Hub, Carlsbad, CA
Home Sweet Home, June 2022, Ashton Gallery (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA
Mission Fed Art Walk little Italy, Oct. 2021, San Diego, CA
Obsessed, Apr. 2021, Ashton Gallry (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA
Quarantine Aquamarine, Sep. 2020, Ashton Gallery (Art On 30Th), San Diego, CA