Maria Saunders

Maria R. Saunders was born in Cascais in 1990 and lives and works in Sintra. She graduated in Painting from the Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, took part in an academic exchange at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, and completed a Master's in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London.

Her practice combines painting with textile techniques, with particular attention to Portuguese traditions and to the often anonymous work of the women who developed and passed them on. Through these media she explores questions of identity and freedom, relating contemporary female experience to historical narratives.

Literature is an important reference in her creative process. Seeing art as a personal and political act, the artist examines the coexistence of different roles in women's lives, particularly between professional careers and the position of matriarch within the family. Her work seeks to give expression to the tensions and possibilities of this experience, affirming the freedom and boldness of femininity.

She has shown her work in exhibitions in Portugal and abroad. Venues that have hosted her work include ArtRoom, Galeria São Mamede and Galeria ISPA in Lisbon, the Museu de História Natural de Sintra, Plato Gallery in Évora, the tunnel of the Brunel Museum in London and Artverse Gallery in Paris.

She was a finalist for the Signature Art Prize in London, exhibiting at Old Spitalfields Market, and for the open call "São ou Não" at Galeria São Mamede. Her work is held in private collections in Portugal, the United States and the United Kingdom.