Maria BelovaInterdisciplinary Artist

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mariavbelowa@gmail.com


About Maria Belova is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. After earning a BA in linguistics in Moscow, Belova moved to Austria where she subsequently started her artistic practice. She has studied Transmedia-and Fine Arts in Vienna (prof. Brigitte Kowanz, Jakob Lena Knebl, University for Applied Arts) and London (Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts). Recent exhibitions and contributions took place at Kunsthalle Vienna, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Council Memorial Church (Konzilsgedächtniskirche) Vienna, Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, as well as through multiple performances and interventions in public spaces.

Maria’s multifaceted practice reveals a blend of performance and objecthood, where the two are in a constant state of dialogue and exchange. It is predicated on her ability to make the invisible visible, to give form to the formless, and voice to the silent. Her works, imbued with a sense of absence, explore human desire for connection and transcendence, as well as the power structures that shape and constrain those aspirations.

Education Transmedia Art (Brigitte Kowanz, Jakob Lena Knebl), University for Applied Arts Vienna, 2020–now
Fine Art (Mary Evans), Chelsea College - University of the Arts London, 2023

Art Photography (Anja Manfredi), Schule Friedl Kubelka Wien, with the teaching contributions by Elfie Semotan, Josephine Pryde, Timm Rautert & others, 2019–2020

Selected exhibitions & Performances PASSAGE, accompanying program with Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl, Falckenberg Collection Deichtorhallen Hamburg (DE), 2024
Women in Tech, Villa Mautner Jäger, Vienna, 2024
Interspace, Galeria WY, Łódź (PL), 2024
ReA! Art Fair, Milan (IT), 2023
PARALLEL VIENNA, Vienna, 2023
Figures of Imagination. Trans..., Georg Kargl Permanent, Vienna, 2022
Soft Machine, Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, Vienna, curated by Jakob Lena Knebl, 2022
Anti–Anti–Anti: de-visibility, unbiased biases and friends, Angewandte Festival, Vienna, curated by Mauricio Ianes de Moraes, 2022
Get It While You Can!, Never At Home, Vienna, co-curated by Maria Belova, 2022
Search for Your People, performative action with Mariya Vasilyeva, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, 2022
A shop is a shop is a shopbeta. Conceptual store, Kunsthalle, Vienna, curated by Klaus Speidel, 2022
Maria Belova: Unspoken, solo show in Konzilgedächtniskirche, Vienna, curated by Gustav Schörghofer SJ, 2021
The 8th Catholic Arts Biennial, The Verostko Center for the Arts, PA (USA), 2021
REALITY, Kunstsalon FLUC, Vienna, curated by Anna Zwingl & Brigitte Kowanz, 2021
Stille Räume, das Weisse Haus, Vienna, curated by Itai Margula, 2020
Bingo!, performative solo intervention, Belvedere 21, Vienna, 2020
Net Works, with Darja Shatalova, Kara Agora European Art & Research Center, online, curated by Julia Hartmann, 2020
Ya I Ona, performance with Darja Shatalova, in the framework of Question Me & Answer, Improper Walls, Vienna, curated by Smaranda Krings, Osama Zatar & Justina Speirokaite, 2019

Cooperation & ProjectsDigital Communications & Branding, viennacontemporary, 2021–now
Freelance art documentation & Content creator (with viennacontemporary, Phileas, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN gallery, das weisse haus, Question Me & Answer, Improper Walls gallery, lt.art festival, multiple individual artists), 2020–now
Co-Curator, Get It While You Can!, Never At Home, Vienna (with Ganaël Dumreicher, Isolar Mesec, Felix Schellhorn, Marlene Stahl, Iris Writze), 2022

PR & Communications Responsible, A shop is a shop is a shopbeta. Conceptual store, Kunsthalle, Vienna, 2022

Ritual Study, 2021–now

  • Series
  • Print on flour, pigment, salt, metal, dimensions variable


Ritual Study is a series of performative sculptures out of granulated materials which are exposing traces of people’s movements in various rituals. The artist uses her own body for exploration of various customs and lets those practices become an extension of her body. The sculptures stand inbetween material and immaterial, presence and absence, and invite a viewer to become an “investigator” of the scene, figuring a potential meaning of the action.

Ritual Study n.10, ReA! Art Fair, Milan, Italy 2023
Acid of copper, 110x70 cm
Exhibition view, Ritual Study n.10
ReA! Art Fair, Milan, Italy 2023
In the making of Ritual Study n.10,11,12, artist’s studio, 2023


In the making of Ritual Study n.10,11,12, artist’s studio, 2023
Installation view, Ritual Study #8 (to Antony G.)
Detail, Ritual Study #8 (to Antony G.) Linseed oil on paper, 240x260 cm
Exhibition view, Ritual Study #3 as part of the group show “Soft Machine” in Phileas Projects, 2022
Ritual Study #3, 2022
Color pigment on floor, 130x90 cm
Ritual Study #3, 2022
Archival pigment print, 420x594 mm
Ritual Study n.4, artist’s studio, 2022 Digital print on paper, Unicat, 220x70 cm
Ritual Study n.4, artist’s studio, 2022 Digital print on paper, Unicat, 220x70 cm
Installation view, Ritual Study #6 (Western Wall) Color pigment on paper, 200x90x50 cm
Installation view, Ritual Study #6 (Western Wall) Color pigment on paper, 200x90x50 cm
Exhibition view, Ritual Study #3 as part of the group show “Wishlist” by Okay Works, Zirkusgasse 38, 2022
Ritual Study #3, Digital print on Japanese paper, (Edition 2+1 AP), 126x74 cm