Deborah Schamoni

Painting lies at the core of Maria VMier’s practice, evolving from writing gestures, from an intricate and idiosyncratic mark-making, to complex formations that seem to be constantly in motion. For MVM, painting is less a place of reification or expression, but a practice of research, experience and (un)learning. Maria VMier’s multidisciplinary practice encompasses context-specific and community-building work, as well as installations, artist books and objects. Central to their work is the notion of the body as a tool of knowledge, a site of political struggle and joy. Recurring themes are the conditions of artistic work, the dynamics of power and desire, institutions as malleable structures, nature, the invisible and the unknown.

Maria VMier (b. 1985 in Passau, Germany) studied painting and sculpture at Bard College, the Munich Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna. They’ve had prominent presentations at MoMA PS1, Museum Brandhorst, and the Pinakothek der Moderne (all 2024), among others. Their practice is grounded in community and collaboration: they regularly invite further artists into their work, they run the artists’ book publisher Hammann von Mier-Verlag with Stefanie Hammann, and are also part of the collective Ruine München with Leo Heinik and Jan Erbelding.