About Corina

👩🎨 About the Artist

Corina Ioana is a Romanian-American contemporary artist and photographer based in California, originally from Transylvania. Her multidisciplinary practice spans abstract painting, mixed media, sculpture, and photography, creating immersive, emotionally resonant work rooted in transformation, resilience, and raw beauty.

Known for richly textured surfaces and the use of natural materials—including sand, pebbles, wood, moss, cement, jute, cotton, molding paste, and glass—Corina’s work feels both ancient and immediate. Bold yet vulnerable, expressive yet restrained, each piece invites the viewer into an emotional experience: a feeling, a memory, a quiet moment of reflection.

Her photographic practice—both analog and digital—explores intimate connections to nature and the human form, while her digital paintings and photography collections expand her exploration of color, form, and emotion into new dimensions.

Corina’s work has been exhibited nationally, featured in juried exhibitions, and published internationally. Through her creative studio, Corinafoto, she continues to develop cohesive bodies of work designed for both private collectors and architectural spaces, including modern residential, hospitality, and commercial environments in San Francisco, New York, and beyond.

Artist Statement

I create to connect—with emotion, with memory, with the invisible.

My work lives at the intersection of abstract painting, photography, and mixed media, where layered textures, organic materials, and intuitive mark-making express what words often cannot.

Every piece is grounded in nature. I work with elemental materials—sand, rocks, wood, moss, cement, jute, glass—not only for their physical presence, but for their meaning. These fragments of the earth carry their own histories and become part of a larger narrative. My process is intuitive and physical, driven by curiosity and a desire to explore what lies beneath the surface—of ourselves, of the moment, of the world.

Each work is both a question and an offering.
A pause. A breath. A shift.

I don’t create for perfection.
I create for presence—for something that doesn’t just hang on the wall, but lingers. Something bold, raw, and alive.

Current Series

Validation Is for Parking

An ongoing collection of original abstract paintings, mixed media works, and sculptures driven by raw texture and unfiltered emotion. These pieces speak in bold gestures and layered surfaces—an act of becoming on your own terms. No permission. No apology. These works do not seek validation. They offer it.


Collections

Nature Infused
Limited edition abstract photography inspired by the wild beauty of the natural world. These pieces bring the outdoors in—art that breathes, calms, and connects.

Femme Fatale
A captivating collection of female portraits intertwined with delicate floral motifs. Bold, resilient, and empowering, these artworks celebrate strength and beauty, adding a striking and elegant presence to any space. Limited edition prints, signed and certified.

Splash of Magic
Bring vibrant energy and color into your home with this lively collection of abstract art prints. Bursting with dynamic movement and rich hues, these works brighten modern interiors and spark conversation. Limited to 25 prints per piece, each with a Certificate of Authenticity.

🖼️ Exhibitions & Recognition

Selected Group & Solo Exhibitions, Awards & Publications

2026

  • January – Finalist, Shades of Blue 2026, Camelback Gallery ("Drift Above the Blue”)
  • January – Published in Artistonish Magazine, 65th Edition Issue - December 2025
  • January -Group Exhibition, The Healing Power of Color 2026, curated by Renee Phillips (Dot Language)

2025

  • October – Grand Opening Exhibition, Stuff by Luxe, San Francisco, CA (34 large-scale pieces)

  • September – Art Explosion Open Studios, San Francisco, CA (25 large-scale works)

  • September – Finalist, Best in Medium 2025, Camelback Gallery ("Golden Passage of Becoming")

  • August – Validation Is For Parking selected for HerStory 2025 Invitational, Manhattan Arts International

  • July – Pancakes & Booze Art Show, San Francisco – featured five new mixed media pop-up pieces

  • June – Nominated Artist of the Month, Camelback Gallery ("Midnight Bloom")

  • April – Open Studios, Art Explosion Studios, San Francisco, CA

  • March – Exhibitor, Superfine Art Fair, San Francisco

2024

  • December – Bronze Medal, My Best Work of 2024, Camelback Gallery ("Colors of the Spirit")

  • May – Forum Literary Magazine, San Francisco – featured four artworks
      – "Girl on Fire" chosen as cover art

2023

  • December – Finalist, All Abstracts 2023, Camelback Gallery ("Chaotic Pixel Symphony")

  • December – Artist of the Month nominee, Camelback Gallery ("Geometric Wonderland")

  • December – Finalist, TopArtAwards International, ("Timeless Reflections")

  • November – Artist of the Month nominee, Camelback Gallery ("Path of Enlightenment")

  • July – Art review by Renee Phillips, Manhattan Arts International
      – Described as “extraordinary talent” with a “transformative vision”

Earlier Exhibitions & Publications

  • 2018 – Don’t Like Blah, Just Wow, Encinitas Civic Art Center, CA

  • 2017 – Solo Exhibition, Jana’s RedRoom Gallery, Las Vegas, NV

  • 2008 – Featured in Photography Vibes – Best of Edition for “Body” and “Wild Beauty”