Maria Positano (b.1995) is a visual artist living between Italy and London.
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.
She is the current winner of the MADE IN Award, promoted and supported by Artissima Fair and Camera di Commercio Torino; furthermore, in 2024 the artist was awarded the Gilbert Bayes Award from The Royal Society of Sculptors in London. 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. Her works have been featured in art institutions and galleries internationally. 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). 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 protection and defence, moving away from violence and into transformation.
Her project is inspired by a fascinating debate in historiography about how we interpret human history in the present. This discussion revolves around two perspectives: the first, Uni-Linear World History, views history as a single, unified narrative with a common purpose for all societies, often centred on the idea of universal modernisation. This perspective often reflects the dominance of Western historiography, portraying European history as a template for global development. In contrast, Two-Tracked World History embraces the idea that history is composed of multiple trajectories. It recognises that different societies evolve independently, shaped by their unique contexts, while sometimes intersecting in meaningful ways.