Maria Toumazou (b.1989, Nicosia, Cyprus) works in sculpture-shaping objects, materials, and situations through creative processes that are informed by site and biography. She attended Städelschule in Frankfurt and graduated from Goldsmiths College in London and Glasgow School of Art.
Recent solo and duo exhibitions include: Condo London with Cora Pongracz, Hot Wheels Athens London and Essex Street/Maxwell Graham, London (2024); RHYTHM, CITIZEN, curated by Tom Engels, Grazer Kunstverein, Graz (2022); SCRAP B, Point Centre for Contemporary Art at Moufflon Bookshop, Nicosia (2022); Coil, Hot Wheels, Athens (2021); and Fair-face Elysée, curated by Peter Eramian, Thkio Ppalies, Nicosia (2018). Toumazou’s work was recently included in Biennale für Freiburg 2, curated by Paula Kommoss, Freiburg (2023); Jacqueline, Athens (2023); Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden (2021); NiMAC, Nicosia (2019); and the Cyprus Pavilion at Biennale Arte, Venice (2017) with Neoterismoi Toumazou.
Maria Toumazou, © Eleni Papadopoulou
Koma tou Gialou/Kώμα του Γιαλού/Kumyali, 2021
Modified violins, muslin, underwear from Neoterismoi Toumazou, Realisation
with Michalis Pantelides (MP Violins). Courtesy: the artist and Hot Wheels,
Athens / London
“Entrance to offices”, 2022, RHYTHM, CITIZEN.
Installation view at Grazer Kunstverein, 2022. Courtesy: the artist and Grazer Kunstverein. Photo: kunst-dokumentation.com
2 bodies, 2024
Found and modified tiles.
Installation view at Phenomenon 5, Anafi, 2024. Photo: Alexandra Masmanidi
Discipline
sculpture, photography, writing
Candle, 2024.
Collage and paint for glass on cardboard
Maria Toumazou’s work is predominantly sculptural, though exploring other disciplines and perspectives as an artistic practice is focal. She is interested in the moment where found forms open up to alternative usage frameworks, shaping objects, materials, and situations through creative processes that are informed by site and biography. Literary forms – such as realism and its attention to the everyday – serve as a methodology for constructing narratives across and within works. Histories and cultures are also revealed in their material facture, unraveling tensions in chronology and circular references that frequently pull from various design eras. Her process-led practice binds together delicate narratives with industry, mechanics, and adhoc inventions employing subjective gestures to manifest opposition to dominant economical structures. Elsewhere, shifting the role of artist as creator, designer, or documenter, Toumazou has created collective projects which stand as independent modes of production. source