Maria Tomaselli

Maria Tomaselli Cirne Lima (born 1941 in Innsbruck, Austria) is an Austro-Brazilian painter and printmaker. She studied philosophy in her home country before moving to Brazil in 1965, where she settled in Porto Alegre. In Brazil, she studied painting with Iberê Camargo, sculpture with Xico Stockinger, and printmaking with Eduardo Sued, Danúbio Gonçalves, and Anna Letycia Quadros.

A socially engaged artist, Maria Tomaselli incorporates philosophical questions into her work, questioning art and promoting the exchange of experiences and reflections with other artists. She also worked as a columnist and culture contributor for the "Segundo Caderno" of the Zero Hora newspaper until 2006.

In 1978, Maria Tomaselli participated in the 1st Latin American Biennial of São Paulo at the Fundação Bienal, and in 1999, she was an invited artist at the II Mercosul Biennial in Porto Alegre. She has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Brazil, Europe, and Latin America.

Maria Tomaselli is married to Carlos Roberto Velho Cirne Lima and holds a PhD in Philosophy from Austria.

In 2015, she released the novel "Kai," which tells stories about her life and that of her husband, Carlos Cirne Lima. In 2019, she published the book "Ela se Chama Azelene," which explores themes such as social inequality and the prison system, reflecting her perplexity towards social inequalities.

In 2019, filmmaker Henrique de Freitas Lima produced a series of documentaries dedicated to Gaucho artists, with the third episode focusing on Maria Tomaselli, highlighting her life and work.

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Text: Blombô research and curation, with the support of artificial intelligence for content writing and structuring.