Maria Laet was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1982, where she continues to live and work.

She participated in the 37th edition of the Panorama of Brazilian Art: Sob as cinzas, brasa, at MAM São Paulo, 2022; the 33rd São Paulo Biennal: Affective Affinities, 2018; the 18th Biennale of Sydney: All Our Relations, 2012; and had her solo show Almost Nothing at the IAC Villeurbanne/ Rhône-Alpes, France, 2019.

Laet did her first solo show in 2010, and she also participated in group exhibitions as:

Lugar de estar: o legado de Burle Marx – Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, 2024;

Chosen Memories: Contemporary Latin American Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Gift and Beyond, – The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA, 2023;

I Remember Earth – Magasin des Horizons, Grenoble, France, 2019;

Matters of Concern – La Verrière, Fdn D’entreprise Hermès, Belgium, 2019;

Mulheres na Coleção MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio, RJ, Brasil, 2018;

Cosmogonies, au Gré des Éléments – MAMAC, Nice, France, 2018;

Video Art in Latin America – LAXART, Los Angeles, USA, 2017;

La Vie Aquatique – Mrac Occitanie, Sérignan, France, 2017;

The Valise – MoMA, New York, USA, 2017;

Osso, exposição apelo ao amplo direito de defesa de Rafael Braga – Inst. Tomie Ohtake, SP, 2017;

Tangents – MSK, Ghent, Belgium, 2015;

Encruzilhada – Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2015;

Rumors of the Meteore – 49 Nord 6 est – Frac Lorraine, Metz, France, 2014;

Everydayness – Wyspa Institute of Art, Gdansk, Poland, 2014;

From the Margin to the Edge – Somerset House, London, UK, 2012;

Convite à Viagem – Rumos Itaú Cultural, São Paulo, Brazil, 2012;

O Lugar da Linha – MAC Niterói and Paço das Artes SP, Brazil, 2010.

Her work is part of collections such as MAM, Gilberto Chateaubriand, Rio de Janeiro; MAC Niterói; 49 Nord 6 est – Frac Lorraine, Metz, France; MSK, Ghent, Belgium; MAR, Rio de Janeiro; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros; and MoMA, New York.

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Maria Laet’s multidisciplinary practice is informed by a series of actions resulting from subtle gestures and interventions in public and domestic spaces. Mediums employed act as conduits and platforms for Laet’s processes, skins, which convey her intentions and reveal the act as an archive. In this way, the work happens through the physicality of the materials evolved, calling attention, among other things, to the space, the membrane that connects and separates at the same time. The poetics of Laet’s work talks about the relation between two parts, between inside and outside, about time and memory, about the measure and the presence of the body, about an identification between the human body and the body of the earth, with an intuitive attention to what is almost invisible.