Maria Lai

She completed her higher education in Cagliari where her letters teacher was the writer and journalist Salvatore Cambosu, who transmitted her love for poetry and taught her the importance of rhythm. After graduation, she moves to Rome, where she attends the Istituto d'Arte on Via Ripetta, studying under sculptor Renato Marino Mazzacurati. From 1943 to 1945, she studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice under sculptor Arturo Martini. Back in Sardinia, she started teaching at school. Still, in 1956 she returned to Rome, where she hung out with Giuseppe Dessì and other intellectuals, writers, artists, and musicians of the informal and conceptual current. In 1957 she exhibited his drawings at the Galleria L'Obelisco in Rome. After a decade of profound reflection and change, she proceeds to abstraction. She abandons painting, dedicating herself instead to experimenting with the use of cloth, loaves, and terracotta. She creates Sewn Canvases, Sewn Books, and Looms. She creates Oggetto-paesaggio, an undone frame that is both an ancient object and a contemporary installation. The loom becomes the guiding thread of her research. In 1971 she exhibits at the Galleria Schneider in Rome, introduced in catalogue by Marcello Venturoli, and in 1978 she takes part at the exhibition Materializzazione del ligguaggio, curated by Mirella Bentivoglio at the Biennale d’Arte di Venezia.
In 1981 she created in Ulassai Legarsi alla montagna, the first participatory art intervention in Italy: the Ulassai's inhabitants tie with a blue ribbon all the houses to the mountain that looms over the village as a symbol of harmony between man, nature, and art.
In the following years, she continues to experiment with traditional and new materials, such as terracotta, ceramics, wood, iron, cement, bread dough, and other synthetic materials. In the '90s, she returns to live in Sardinia, where she pursues performances and theatrical and environmental actions. She continues to experiment with the themes dear to her: from Sewn Pages of Sewn Books, she creates Sheets, and Sewn Books become Sewn Fairy Tales. She also writes treatises on the role of the artist. She attempts to create a guide for reading the works of art of all eras (La barca di carta, 1996) and games that refer to the role of art (I luoghi dell'arte a portata di mano, 2002; Il volo del gioco dell'oca, 2003).
Her work Orme di leggi was announced as the winner of the Premio Camera dei Deputati during the celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy and placed in the Parliamentary Groups Hall in the Chamber of Deputies in Rome.
Amongst her major exhibitions in recent years: Ricucire il Mondo (Cagliari, Musei Civici, 2014), Nel mezzo del mezzo (Museo Regionale Riso, Palermo, 2015), W. Women in Italian design (XXI Triennale di Milano, Milano, 2016), Documenta 14 (Documenta, Atene e Kassel, 2017), 57 Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte. VIVA ARTE VIVA (Biennale d’Arte, Venezia, 2017), Maria Lai. Il filo e l’infinito (Palazzo Pitti, Firenze, 2018), Maria Lai. Anno zero, (Firenze, Museo Novecento, 2018), MARIA LAI. Tenendo per mano il sole (MAXXI, Roma, 2019 - 2020), Trama doppia. Maria Lai/Antonio Marras (Museo di Palazzo Lanfranchi, Matera, 2019).

Source: Archivio Maria Lai