Maria Positano

Maria Positano (b.1995) is a visual artist living between Italy and London. Her works have been featured in art institutions internationally. She has completed her education in London, where she graduated from City and Guilds of London Art School in 2018 and the Royal College of Art in 2023. In 2024, she was awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award from the Royal Society of Sculptors in London, furthermore, just recently, the artist won the MADE ed.3 with support of Artissima Fair, Turin, IT.

Maria has been invited to take part in various international artist residency programs, a few examples include: StudioBlock M74, Mexico City, MX; ViaFarini.org in Milan, IT; JETLeg, Munich, GE.

Notable recent exhibitions include: Il Peso del Vuoto, MARec – Museo dell’Arte Recuperata, San Severino nelle Marche (2024); Not from this place, Nashira Gallery, Milan (2024); Studio Responses #4, Saatchi Gallery, London (2024); Matter, Flowers Gallery, London (2023); Beyond the Matter, Galerie Der Kunstler*Innen, Munich (2023); A perfect place, Studio Block M74, Mexico City (2022); Identity, CAA Art Museum, Hangzhou, CN (2021).

Drawing from her upbringing as a Third Culture Kid, the artist makes work from a sense of cross-cultural kinship, supported by her nomadic lifestyle and often on the move practice. For this reason Maria’s work often is expansive and includes a variety of materials and formats. Her polymorphic work invites new interpretations of protective and defensive devices, reframing histories of violence into practices of human transformation. Positano is currently involved in a research looking at amour developments across the Silk Road, from Asia, South Asia and Europe.