biography

Born in Scalea, Italy, 1942. Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.

Drawing from the everyday female consciousness and from an oppressive, censorial dictatorship – as experienced in 1970s and 1980s Brazil – Italian-born Anna Maria Maiolino has produced works steeped in vital force, in a wide range of languages and media throughout her artistic career: from performance to sculpture, from videos to photography, installation and drawing.

Maiolino was involved in Brazil’s 1960s New Figuration movement: her representational prints and drawings from these years were acts of resistance to the national military regime, rising urban inequalities, and culturally ingrained patriarchy. She would later cultivate an interest in spatial and existential issues with a shift towards Minimalism and Conceptualism, creating installations that coaxed interaction between viewer and object. Since 1989, Maiolino has started working with clay, crafting impermanent labor-intensive installations that foreground her physical handling of the material, references to the unconscious and recurrent gestures of everyday life.

Maiolino’s works are based on processes of creation necessarily paired with destruction, and almost constantly on matters of identity, from the subjective and universal point of view. Developing a dialogue between opposing and complementary categories, her artistic practice dissolves between dichotomies between the inside and the outside, between emptiness and matter, ancient and contemporary.

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Born in Scalea, Italy, 1942. Lives and works in São Paulo, Brazil.

Drawing from the everyday female consciousness and from an oppressive, censorial dictatorship – as experienced in 1970s and 1980s Brazil – Italian-born Anna Maria Maiolino has produced works steeped in vital force, in a wide range of languages and media throughout her artistic career: from performance to sculpture, from videos to photography, installation and drawing.

Maiolino was involved in Brazil’s 1960s New Figuration movement: her representational prints and drawings from these years were acts of resistance to the national military regime, rising urban inequalities, and culturally ingrained patriarchy. She would later cultivate an interest in spatial and existential issues with a shift towards Minimalism and Conceptualism, creating installations that coaxed interaction between viewer and object. Since 1989, Maiolino has started working with clay, crafting impermanent labor-intensive installations that foreground her physical handling of the material, references to the unconscious and recurrent gestures of everyday life.

Maiolino’s works are based on processes of creation necessarily paired with destruction, and almost constantly on matters of identity, from the subjective and universal point of view. Developing a dialogue between opposing and complementary categories, her artistic practice dissolves between dichotomies between the inside and the outside, between emptiness and matter, ancient and contemporary.

Maiolino has presented solo shows in numerous international institutions, among which: Schhhiii..., MALBA Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2022); psssiiiuuu, Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2022); Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2021); SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2020); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2019); PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan (2019); MOCA, Los Angeles (2017); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2014); Malmo Kunsthalle (2011); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporânea, Santiago de Compostela (2011); Fundació Antoní Tàpies, Barcelona (2010); Camden Arts Centre, London (2010); Pharos Centre for Contemporary art, Cipro (2007).

Recent group shows include: Chosen Memories, MoMA, New York (2023); Louise Bourgeois. Imaginary Conversations, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo (2023); senzamargine – Passages in Italian Art at the Turn of the Millennium, MAXXI, Rome (2020-22); Pop América, 1965–1975, Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, North Carolina (2019); A Tale of Two Worlds, Museum of Modern Art Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires (2018); Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017); Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, The Met Breuer, New York (2017); Acervo em Transformação and Histórias da Infáncia, MASP, São Paulo (2016); La Grande Madre, Palazzo Reale, Milan (2015); The World Goes Pop, Tate Modern, London (2015).

Maiolino took part to several international biennials such as: La Biennale de Lyon (2017), 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2014) and Documenta 13, Kassel (2012).

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images

Untitled, from Propícios [Propitious] series, 2013

Acrylic on canvas

120 × 250 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, from Propícios [Propitious] series, 2008

Acrylic on canvas

80 × 80 cm each, diptych

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, from Ações Matéricas [Matter Actions] series, 1999

Acrylic on canvas

125 × 68 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, from Ações Matéricas [Matter Actions] series, 2004

Acrylic on canvas

30 × 50 cm each, diptych

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, from Ações Matéricas [Matter Actions] series, 2009

Acrylic on canvas

71 × 100 cm each, diptych

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Na Horizontal (On the Horizontal), 2014

Metal structure with raku ceramic and shielded copper wire

240 × 120 × 20 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, serie Entre o Dentro e o Fora (from Between Inside and Outside series), 2014

Molded cement on metal table

42 × 32 × 40 cm, table: 31x36x45 cm

De: Para: (From: To:), serie Fotopoemação (from Photo-poem-action series), 1974-2016

Black and white photograph, digital print

75 × 48 cm

Untitled, série Incompletude (from the series Incompleteness), 2019

Acrylic ink on paper

100 × 70 cm

Sem título, da série Interações, 2019

Acrylic ink on paper

100 × 70 cm

Sem titulo, da série Codificações Matéricas, 1994

Acrylic ink on paper

70 × 100 cm; 78 × 108 × 4 cm framed

Sou um em Oito (I am One in Eight) – (white), 2012

Ceramic piece in cement base on metal table

Base: 62,5 x 38,5 x 23 cm Element: 58 (l) x 28 (w) x 27,5 (h) cm Metal table: 54,6 x 33,6 x 76,6 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Sou um Múltiplo de Oito (I am a Multiple of Eight) – (Black/raku), 2012

Raku ceramic piece in cement base on metal table

Base: 70 (l) x 40 (w) x 24 (h) cm Element: 58 (l) x 28 (w) x 28 (h) cm Metal table: 54,6 x 33,6 x 76,6 (h) cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Sem Título (Untitled), serie A Flor De Pele - Fotopoemação (from A Flor De Pele - Photo-poem-action series), 2009

7 color photographs, digital print

29,5 × 23,5 cm (each)

7 + 1, serie Objeto Escultórico (from Sculptural/Object series), 1999

Molded metal

15 × 210 cm

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Untitled, serie Pequenos Ausentes (from series Little Absent series), 1996-2001

Molded cement with pigment mat

25 × 21 × 8 cm

Untitled, serie Pequenos Ausentes (from series Little Absent series), 1996-2001

Molded plaster with pigment mat

25 × 21 × 8 cm

Untitled, serie Pequenos Ausentes III (from series Little Absent III series), 1996

Molded cement with pigment

26 × 22 × 8 cm

public exhibitions

MALBA Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Schhhiii...

7.10.2022 – 20.2.2023

Photo: Nacho Isparra

Instituto Tomie Ohtake

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Psssiiiuuu...

7.5 – 24.6.2022

Photo: Ricardo Miyada

Kunsthaus Baselland

Muttenz, Switzerland

In the sky I am one and many and as a human I am everything and nothing

21.5 – 26.10.2021

Photo: Gina Folly

MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo

Rome, Italy

Senzamargine. Passages in Italian Art at the Turn of the Millennium

2.10 – 10.10.2020

Courtesy: Fondazione MAXXI

SCAD Museum of Art

Savannah, GA

Por um fio (By a Thread)

4.2 – 9.8.2020

Whitechapel Gallery

London, UK

Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary

25.9.2019 – 12.1.2020

Photo: Stephen White, Courtesy: Whitechapel Gallery

PAC

Milan, Italy

Anna Maria Maiolino - O AMOR SE FAZ REVOLUCIONÁRIO

29.3 – 1.9.2019

Curated by Diego Sileo. Photo: Nico Covre

PAC

Milan, Italy

Performance: Al di là di

5.4.2019

Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

MOCA

Los Angeles, CA

Anna Maria Maiolino

4.8.2017 – 22.1.2018

Photo: Brian Forrest

dOCUMENTA (13)

Kassel, Germany

Anna Maria Maiolino: Here & There

9.6 – 16.9.2012

press

Anna Maria Maiolino Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the Biennale Arte 2024

November 2023

Produzione creatività e identità

Luciano Marucci

Juliet

October, 2023

La mostra tra pittura e performance di Anna Maria Maiolino a Milano

Agnese Torres

Artribune

June 23, 2023

An Art in Favor of Life: A Conversation with Anna Maria Maiolino

Inés Katzenstein, Madeline Murphy Turner, Anna Maria Maiolino

MoMA Magazine

February 10, 2022

In the Sky I Am One and Many

Ines Goldbach

NERO

December 3, 2021

Anna Maria Maiolino

Francesca Pola

Artforum

Summer 2020

Mouth Over Matter

Fernanda Brenner

Frieze

September 2019

Anna Maria Maiolino, "O Amor Se Faz Revolucionário"

Riccardo Conti

Vogue Italia

April 16, 2019

La rivoluzione di Anna Maria Maiolino

Eugenio Viola

Arte

April 2019

Tess Thackara

The New York Times Style Magazine

November 19, 2018

Anna Maria Maiolino

Kaira M. Cabanas

Artforum

January, 2018

Radical Women & Anna Maria Maiolino

Summer Guthery

Frieze

January/February, 2018

Weekend in Los Angeles: That Touch of Brazil

Jason Farago

The New York Times

August 30, 2017

Anna Maria Maiolino makes unsentimental art about being a woman

Carolina A. Miranda

Los Angeles Times

October 4, 2017

Her Other Selves. On Anna Maria Maiolino's art of becoming

Michael Asbury

Flash Art International

January 2015

Anna Maria Maiolino

Barbara Casavecchia

Frieze

May 2010

publications

Anna Maria Maiolino – Psssiiiuuu

Miyada, Paulo

Instituto Tomie Ohtake

Sao Paulo

2022

Out of focus. Il libro fotografico nelle collezioni della Galleria Nazionale

Gorchakovskaya, Anna; Palmieri, Francesca (ed.)

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea

Rome

2021

Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary

Fombella, Trinidad; Yee, Lydia (ed.); Asbury, Michael; de Zegher, Catherine; Fombella, Trinidad; Miyada, Paulo (texts by)

Whitechapel Gallery

London

2019

Anna Maria Maiolino: O amor se faz revolucionário

Sileo, Diego (ed.); Doctor, Marcio; Myada, Paulo; Fombella, Trinidad; Asbury, Michael; de Zegher, Catherine; Rivera, Tania (texts by)

Silvana Editoriale

Milan

2019

Anna Maria Maiolino

Molesworth, Helen (ed.); Barcena, Bryan; Fer, Briony; Martins, Sérgio B.; Molesworth, Helen; Wagner, Anne (texts by)

The Museum of Contemporary Art, DelMonico Books

New York

2017

Anna Maria Maiolino. Anna’s Skin

Lins, Daniel (ed.)

Cosac & Naify Edições

São Paulo

2016

Anna Maria Maiolino

Tatay, Helena (ed.)

König Books

London

2011

Anna Maria Maiolino – Vida Afora / A Life Line

De Zegher, Catherine (ed.); Maiolino, Anna Maria

The New York Drawing Center

New York

2002

video


Anna Maria Maiolino, AL DI LÀ DI

2019

Performance di Anna Maria Maiolino, con la partecipazione dell'artista Gaya Rachel e la collaborazione di Flavio Kactuz, prodotta dal PAC Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea di Milano.


Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary

2019

Anna Maria Maiolino: Making Love Revolutionary at Whitechapel Gallery, 25 September 2019 – 12 January 2020. Courtesy Whitechapel Gallery.


In Atto

2015

Performance by Anna Maria Maiolino with Sandra Lessa at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, via Stradella 1, Milan. April 30, 2015. Video by Alessandro Lentati.

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