Lugano
Maria Lai was born in 1919 in Ulassai, Sardinia. His solid artistic training began in Rome, where he attended the art school under the guidance of Angelo Prini and Marino Mazzacurati, then continued at the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, where he studied sculpture with Arturo Martini and Alberto Viani. He then moved to Rome, where he lived for a long time and where, in 1957, he held his first solo exhibition at the L’Obelisco gallery.
After this promising debut, Maria Lai goes through a long period of artistic silence lasting about ten years, during which she decides not to exhibit her works to the public any more. In this phase of reflection and research, it abandons the figurative language to embrace an informal style, more essential and symbolic. It is in these years that some of his most iconic works are born, such as the Canvas and Books sewn, the Bread and the Looms.
In 1978, Mirella Bentivoglio invited her to participate in the Venice Biennale, marking her return to the art scene. The eighties saw the establishment of the cycle of Geographies and Stitched Books, as well as the beginning of his first works of relational art and interventions on the territory. Back to live in Sardinia, in 2006 she inaugurated Stazione dell’Arte – Museo Arte Contemporanea Ulassai, which houses a significant part of her work.
The works of Maria Lai are now preserved in prestigious Italian and international institutions, including: the National Central Library in Florence, the MoMA in New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the GNAM in Rome, the MUSMA in Matera, the Art Museum of the Province of Nuoro, the Municipal Art Gallery of Cagliari, the MART of Rovereto and many others. After her death in 2013, numerous exhibitions and retrospectives were dedicated to her in Italy, Europe and the United States.
