Anna Maria Maiolino's Performative Paintings at Galleria Raffaella Cortese

Galleria Raffaella Cortese in Milan presents 'Ações Matéricas', the fourth solo show dedicated to Italian-Brazilian artist Anna Maria Maiolino (b. 1942, Scalea). This exhibition closes a cycle that previously explored video, photography, and sculpture. For the first time, the gallery focuses on Maiolino's paintings, which are created through a performative process where black acrylic flows across the canvas guided by gravity, resulting in irregular stains and hieroglyph-like marks. The works include three diptychs and two single canvases, with six featuring warm yellow or orange backgrounds—a departure from her usual black-and-white palette. Maiolino, who defines herself as a nomadic artist, left Calabria at age 12 for Venezuela and later Brazil, where she joined the Nova Figuração movement and the New Objectivity movement. Her interdisciplinary practice addresses migration, hunger, motherhood, and female emancipation.