Maria Masullo

I am an Italian artist and educator based in Leicester.
In my work, I explore the therapeutic potential of art-making as a path to healing and self-inquiry that connects me with the natural world and my inner landscape. I am interested in texture and colour as expressive devices that allow me to translate raw emotional material and spiritual experiences into abstraction, using a language that focuses on the ‘feeling’ and transcends any recognisable narrative.
The sacredness and cyclicity of Nature are strong thematic threads in my work. My interest in philosophy, spiritual ecology, herbalism, ritual and esotericism informs the concepts and materials I choose to work with. Often foraged medicinal herbs, essential oils, resins and natural materials are incorporated as a symbolic and energetic reference to the process of creation.
Painting is for me a therapeutic process. Every time I stand ready before a blank canvas, I feel equally powerful and vulnerable. Vulnerability is a productive state for me as an artist, and each painting is an ordinary act of courage. When I start working on a new piece, I never know where the journey will take me and how long it will last. With each layer of paint on the canvas, a deeper layer of Self bec...

January 2023, Leicester Museum, Open Exhibition

June- September 2019, Screen @ Saatchi Gallery, London

April 2019, 4th- 7th @ Roy’s People Art Fair, Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London.

January 2019, 11th-13th – @ Artrooms London, Meliá White House, Regent’s Park, London.

December 2018, 4th-8th – ‘Spontaneous’ @ Nolias Gallery, Southwark, London.

January 20- February 10, 2018 – ‘India: Stillness in Motion’ @ Ashburton Hall, London.