Tanja Marmolejo (b. 1975) combines the beautiful and the unsettling in her monumental paintings. Her innocent-looking girls with their big eyes seem to look straight into your soul, their doll-like nature making you instantly sympathize with them. However, unlike real-life dolls, Tanja Marmolejo’s women tower over the viewer on the large-scale canvases. Many times larger than a human, their expressive faces and intense presence creates a dissonance between what we expect and what we actually feel. Rightly, her art has often been described as “Uncanny Cute”. Her characteristic color palette reflets this duality; while dominated by pinks, they are muted and contrasted by moody greys, greens and blues, creating an atmosphere that is both joyful and sophisticated. Born in 1975 in the Dominican Republic, Tanja holds a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and Illustration from Parsons School of Design, New York, a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts and Illustration from Altos De Chavón School of Design in the Dominican Republic and a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design and Illustration from Kvadraturen Videregaende Skolen in Kristiansand, Norway. She has exhibited her works in museums and galleries all over the world since 2005, including in the Queens Museum of Art in New York, in the Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, New York, Galleri Nord-Norge in Harstad, Norway, and Museo Cándido Bidó, Bonao in the Dominican Republic. Before making the switch to fine art, she has worked as an animator and illustrator for esteemed clients like MTV, PBS, Hyperion/Disney, and Scholastic Books.