Group exhibition at AG18 Gallery
Opening: January 27, 6–9 PM
Until March 3, 2026
Annagasse 18, 1010 Vienna
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Maria’s practice is a sustained inquiry into the choreography of belief — how it is performed, enforced, and aestheticized across religious, political, and cultural spheres. She explores the tension between transcendence and control, engaging with religious heritage as both a metaphysical force and an instrument of earthly power. Drawing on iconographic traditions, she reflects on contemporary rituals, digital spiritualism, and the enduring influence of spiritual and ideological systems on both private lives and public institutions.
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, Birke Gorm, Mirela Baciak, Josephine Pryde, Timm Rautert & others, 2019–2020
Upcoming group show: Graduation Exhibition at Krinzinger Schottenfeld, Vienna, opening June 22, 2026
Driveway Dreams, bureau fomo, Vienna
Fragile Constructs, gezwanzig projects, Vienna
re:stART International Residency, Quartier am Hafen, Cologne (DE)
PASSAGE, accompanying program with Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl, Falckenberg Collection Deichtorhallen Hamburg (DE)
Budapest Contemporary Art Fair, Budapest (HU)
Women in Tech, Villa Mautner Jäger, Vienna
Interspace, Galeria WY, Łódź (PL)
PARALLEL VIENNA, Vienna
Soft Machine, Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, Vienna, curated by Jakob Lena Knebl
Anti–Anti–Anti: de-visibility, unbiased biases and friends, Angewandte Festival, Vienna, curated by Mauricio Ianes de Moraes
Get It While You Can!, Never At Home, Vienna, co-curated by Maria Belova
Search for Your People, performative action with Mariya Vasilyeva, University of Applied Arts, Vienna
A shop is a shop is a shopbeta. Conceptual store, Kunsthalle Vienna, curated by Klaus Speidel
The 8th Catholic Arts Biennial, The Verostko Center for the Arts, PA (USA)
REALITY, Kunstsalon FLUC, Vienna, curated by Anna Zwingl & Brigitte Kowanz,
Bingo!, performative solo intervention, Belvedere 21, Vienna
Net Works, with Darja Shatalova, Kara Agora European Art & Research Center, online, curated by Julia Hartmann,
Digital Communications & Branding, viennacontemporary, 2021–2024
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
Will-O'-The-Wisp, 2026
- Group Exhibition at AG18, Vienna
| Aluminium, | 200x100 cm |
Just Your Right Shoulder, Just Your Left Shoulder, Just Your Right Hand, Just Your Left Hand, Just Your Chest, 2026
Aluminium, gauge, oil paint, silicone, VD
Observer 2.2, 2024/25
Aluminium, rotating mechanism, 89x89x12 cm
Ritual Study n.11, 2026
Black pigment on textile
“Through her works, Maria Belova reveals how protection, strength, and fragility are constructed through material, ritual, and belief. Her engagement with protection, materiality, and symbolism unfolds through engraved metal surfaces. Historical images and ornamental depictions of nature are inscribed using techniques reminiscent of armor engraving. Armor traditionally signifies protection, strength, and invulnerability; yet historically it offered only partial safety. It was heavy, restrictive, and closely tied to visibility, rank, and status. Protection here is not absolute, but negotiated through material, belief, and display.
This ambivalence is particularly evident in The Forest. Based on a copper engraving by Israel van Meckenem from after 1485, ornamental images of nature dissolve into abstracted forms that recall camouflage. Forests historically functioned as spaces of refuge — places to hide and escape exposure in open fields. At the same time, they can be unsettling environments: dense with sound, obscured vision, and hidden presences. In the engravings, trees, unknown fruits, and human figures appear intertwined. What seems protective can become disorienting; what appears decorative may conceal danger.
The sculptural works extend this inquiry into belief systems and ritual as strategies for coping with the unknown. In Ritual Study, a series of performative installations made from granulated materials such as flour, pigment, and salt record the traces of bodily movement during ritual actions. What remains is not the body but its imprint. The viewer encounters physical evidence of action — marks, gestures, patterns — without witnessing the act itself. Prayers become visualized without being spoken, and belief is present without a visible subject.”
– Julia Harrauer, Curator of the show