Maria Thereza Alves
Biography
Born in 1961 in Sao Paulo (Brasil). Lives and works between Naples (Italy) and Berlin (Germany).
Maria Thereza Alves' artistic trajectory is inseparable from her political activism,
whether it be in favour of ecology, the rights of indigenous minorities or territorial and
decolonising struggles.
Maria Thereza Alves does not favour any particular medium, although her work often takes the form of prolific installations mixing natural and manufactured objects, videos, texts, drawings and photographs. These installations, like real investigations, reconstruct the artist's explorations and actions on a given territory. In the same way, her field of research and commitment is free of geographical boundaries, whether she invests in the urban environment (New York, Manchester) or natural spaces. The Seeds of Change project, begun in 1999, this time articulates the issues of colonization, slavery and ecology. Seeds brought back to Europe by merchant ships are exhumed and then replanted in the heart of large western cities on floating platforms. The circulation of beings, whether human or plants, allows Alves to draw up a paradoxical history of globalization, between uprooting, abandonment and resistance.
In 2017, she has been awarded by the Vera List Prize.
Selected exhibitions include solo shows at IAC - Institut d'Art Contemporain (Villeurbanne), High Line (New York), Parsons - The New School of Design (New York), CAAC - Centre Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (Seville), Musée d'Histoire de Nantes - Château des Ducs de Bretagne, Serpentine Gallery (London), CRAC Alsace (Altkirch), Jewish Museum (Berlin). She has participated in many international biennials such as (d)OCUMENTA 13 (Kassel), Manifesta 7 (Trento), 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, 29th Sao Paulo Biennial.
Her work is part of prestigious collections as Reina Sofia (Madrid), Migros Museum
(Zurich), Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), National Gallery of Canada
(Ottawa), Heather & Anthony Podesta (Washington D.C.), BPS22 - Collection de la Province de Hainaut (Charleroi), IAC — Institut d'art contemporain (Villeurbanne), INELCOM Collection (Madrid).&
Selected works
...
No more pages to load
Gallery exhibitions
Museum exhibitions
Manifesta 12, Palermo, Italy, 2018
Thailand Biennale, Chiang Rain Thailand, 2023
MAMAC, Nice, 2022
documenta 15, Kassel, Germany, 2022
Migros Museum, Zürich, 2020
Migros Museum, Zürich, 2020
22nd Biennial of Sydney, Autralia, 2020
22nd Biennial of Sydney, Autralia, 2020
...
No more pages to load
Videos
Maria Thereza Alves - On Remembering for a Future
Maria Thereza Alves, On remembering for a future, at Michel Rein, Paris, 2022
FOCUS WORK
Pascal Beausse, head of the Cnap's photographic collection, presents Fair Trade Head, a work by Maria Thereza Alves
Press
StayinArt
Maria Thereza Alves: "Sprossen der Vergangenheit"
2024
Artforum
ArtForum : Must See
2022
KUNSTFORUM International
Maria Thereza Alves, Uber das landschaftsbild als sichtbarmachung von gescichte
2022
Art in America
Seeds of Change
2022
Mousse Magazine
Conversations - On Fights, Rights, and real Forms of (Artistic) Contribution
2019
Il Manifesto
Un mondo botanico
2019
Third Text
Maria Thereza Alves
2018
FRIEZE
Maria Thereza Alves
2018
...
No more pages to load
Publications
Maria Thereza Alves, Seeds of Change
Publisher: Carin Kuoni and Wilma Lukatsch
2022
Maria Thereza Alves
Publisher: Sternberg Press & CAAC
2017
Seeds of Change: A Floating BAllast Seed Garden
Publisher:
2015
Maria Thereza Alves
Publisher: École des beaux-arts de Nantes
2013
