Maria’s practice is predominantly based on the activist and interventional potential of the work of art and the artist in society, in order to tackle fracturing issues of the sociopolitical past and present of communities and places. Holding a particular interest in the role that images and objects perform in the individual and collective memory throughout history, Maria currently conducts a project of artistic creation and research on collective forgetfulness and its socio-political repercussions, from destroyed archives in Europe and from models of technological and digital reproduction. Visual artist and researcher based in Porto, Portugal.

Graduated in Fine Arts – Painting (2012) at the Faculty of Fine Arts University of Porto and completed a Master in Art&Science (2017) at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Maria has developed a prolific artistic career, with her work being presented in various formats and exhibited in solo and group shows at relevant institutions, museums, galleries and independent spaces. Her practice is marked by an interdisciplinary approach in the universe of art, science, and technology, and she has conducted several projects in collaboration with practitioners from other fields such as architecture, biology, theater, music, circus, science, and literature. She co-founded the artist-run-space InSpiteOf (2018-20), and the artist-run-project Expedição (2013-15) in Porto. She is regularly invited to pursue artistic and scientific research in the context of artist residencies. Her work has been recognized with the attribution of relevant awards and grants from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Ágora Porto, Ministry of Culture, and Centro Nacional da Cultura. Selected solo and group exhibitions at: Towards Gallery, Toronto CA; Deegar Platform, Tehran IR; Museu de Serralves, Porto PT; Tiroler Künstlerschaft – Neue Galerie, Innsbruck AT; Galeria Nuno Centeno, Porto PT; MAAT, Lisbon PT; Super Tokonoma, Kassel GE; Quartier Général, La Chaux-de-Fonds SW; MACE Elvas, PT; Kluckyland, Vienna; Galeria Presença, Porto PT; Mirat Projects, Madrid SP; Galeria Municipal do Porto, PT; Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna AT; Reykjavík Arts Festival, IS; Galeria da Boavista, Lisbon PT.

Since 2017, Maria has developed, in collaboration with European and Middle Eastern museums, “Wake up the Statues”, an artistic research on collective forgetfulness and its socio-political repercussions, observed from specific items in their collections. In this context, during her residency at AiR351, Maria will conduct research and produce “The Leap”, a new work inspired by the accidental toppling of a sculpture inside a museum in Lisbon. Through a process of filming new footage on site, gathering archival images and collecting interviews, the Leap maps the social ramifications of the accidental fall of a statue in contemporary Portuguese society, digging in fictions and conflicts of its past that permeate the present.