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Bio

Maria Britton is an artist making abstract paintings, sculptures, and textile-based works with a focus on repurposing two everyday materials: bed sheets and newspaper. Her distinctive bodies of work touch on themes of memory, dreams, accumulation, labor, and value. Maria has participated in artist residencies through Lighthouse Works, Hambidge Center, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, Petrified Forest National Park, and Vermont Studio Center. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina Museum of Art, Lump Gallery, and Atlanta Contemporary, among others. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings. Maria earned her BFA from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, and her MFA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has written for Burnaway and The Coastal Post. From 2015-2020, she co-directed an experimental art gallery called LOG. Since 1999, Maria has worked around 50 odd jobs as a housecleaner, educator, stain and glaze dental technician, direct support professional, photo re-toucher, hospital artist-in-residence working directly with oncology patients, and more. Maria Britton (b. 1982) is currently based in Carrboro, NC.



Artist Statement

My art includes painting, sculpture, and textile-based works called Draperies. In my distinctive bodies of work, I explore notions of femininity and feminism, high and low forms of making, and dreams and disasters. Through my use of everyday materials including used bed sheets and newspapers, I transform materials typically on their way out the door into an opportunity to elevate and extend experiences of liminality. Accumulation is integral to my process and partly what my work is about. Dated bed sheets act as windows for peering into specific times from the past. The surface of a bed is a place where one both experiences and escapes reality, a gateway between two realms. My approach to making is improvisational within the constraints I define. I want to strike a balance between chaotic gestures and structure. I’m interested in exploring psychological themes through abstraction. Feminism informs and supports how I make and the materials and techniques I choose to work with. My paper pulp sculptures, made from newspapers and miscellaneous papers, are carefully constructed to combine floral forms with loose interpretations of bodily movements. Working with my own mix of pulped-up papers refers to the newsfeed and information overload. Influenced by clothing construction, the human body, curtains, windows, and cycles in nature, my work is a material exploration of the immaterial.




Resume

Solo Exhibitions
2020 Dream Bodies - Sumter County Gallery of Art; Sumter, SC
2019 Floral Spread - Snag; Seattle, WA
2019 Soft Storage - My Room; Chapel Hill, NC
2018 Low Relief - Lump; Raleigh, NC
2009 Deep Sleep - Allenton Gallery; Durham Arts Council; Durham, NC
2006 Renovations - Florence Museum; Florence, SC

Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 What Are You Doing in My Dream?; Goodyear Arts; Charlotte, NC
2024 Reworking a Bloom; Lump; Raleigh, NC (two person)
2024 Mélange; Nationale; Portland, OR
2024 Slump; Atlanta Contemporary; Atlanta, GA
2023 Art on Paper; Weatherspoon Art Museum; Greensboro, NC
2023 Slump; Lump; Raleigh, NC
2022 Full Circle; Take it Easy; Atlanta, GA
2022 Long View; Francis Marion Art Gallery; Florence, SC (two person)
2021 Bad Touch; Lump; Raleigh, NC
2021 Break the Mold; NC Museum of Art; Raleigh, NC
2020 Holiday Show; LABspace; Hillsdale, NY
2020 Front Burner - NC Museum of Art; Raleigh, NC
2019 Arboreal - Bailey Contemporary; Pompano Beach, FL
2019 Ancestry of Necessity - American Tobacco Campus; Durham, NC
2019 Soft Grit - LOBO; New York, NY
2018 Textile based Abstraction from the Piedmont - Smith Gallery at Appalachian State University; Boone, NC
2018 Contemporaries - Light; Chapel Hill, NC
2018 The Sea Wants to Take Me - Tempus Projects; Tampa, FL
2017 Fake Flowers - Camayuhs; Atlanta, GA (two person)
2017 You Drain Me - Tempus Projects; Tampa, FL
2016 Anywhere But Here - Lump; Raleigh, NC
2016 We Gave Our Best - Im Ersten; Vienna, Austria
2016 Past Tense/Future Perfect - Cameron Gallery at The Scrap Exchange; Durham, NC
2015 Pilot - L.O.G.; Chapel Hill, NC
2015 Spills - Stephen and George Laundry Line; Ridgewood, NY
2015 Family Ties - Circuit 12 Contemporary; Dallas, TX
2015 Static Cling 2 - BAM; Brooklyn, NY (catalog)
2015 Bed Bath & Between - SOIL Gallery; Seattle, WA
2015 New Work City - Momenta; Brooklyn, NY
2014 New Works - (harbor) Regina Rex; New York, NY
2014 Static Cling - Penelope; Queens, NY (catalog)
2014 Family Style - Formerly Pocket Utopia; New York, NY
2014 Do It Yourself: Meanwhile, Back at the Farm - 195 Morgan; Brooklyn, NY
2014 Economy Candy - Harbor Gallery; Queens, NY
2011 Winter Show - Green Hill Center for Art; Greensboro, NC
2009 Friends and Family Show - The Scrap Exchange; Durham, NC
2008 Re>Visit: I - Rutledge Gallery; Winthrop University; Rock Hill, SC

Artist Residencies
2022 Lighthouse Works - Fishers Island, NY
2019 Hambidge - Rabun Gap, GA
2010 Vermont Studio Center (Full Fellowship) - Johnson, VT
2009 Petrified Forest National Park - Petrified Forest, AZ
2009 Byrdcliffe Arts Colony - Woodstock, NY

Awards / Grants
2021 Artist Support Grant; Durham Arts Council; Durham, NC
2019 Artist Project Grant; Orange County Arts Commission; Carrboro, NC
2009 Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grant; Durham Arts Council; Durham, NC
2007 Joan Mitchell MFA Award Nominee

Bibliography
Howe, Brian. Soft Storage. Indy Week. Aug 8, 2019.
Rawlings, Noah. How Green Was My Gallery. Indy Week. Mar 29, 2017.
White, Amy. BURNAWAY’S Best of 2016: Movers, Shakers & Newsmakers. BURNAWAY. Dec 21, 2016.
Seftel, Briana. Here’s Why You Must See This New Art Show on a Laundry Line in Ridgewood. Bushwick Daily. Nov 16, 2015.
Better than the Beyond: Bed Bath & Between at SOIL Gallery. New American Paintings Blog. Feb 2015.
Edmonds, Brian. Current Exhibition: Bed Bath & Between at SOIL Gallery. Curating Contemporary Blog. Feb 2015
International Painting Annual, Vol. 1. Manifest Press 2011.
White, Amy. Lori Waxman, rocking the art world, one review at a time. Independent Weekly. May 19, 2010.
Waxman, Lori. Maria Britton. 60 wrd/min art critic. May 6, 2010.
New American Paintings, No. 82. Open Studios Press. 2009.
Studio Visit, Vol. 1. Open Studios Press. 2008.
Greenberg, Blue. Art Guild exhibit anchors this year’s Art Walk. Herald Sun. April 13, 2008.
Natale, Michele. Critic’s picks. News and Observer. May 11, 2007.
Bailey, Justin. Florence Native puts Florence Museum “to bed”. Morning News. June 9, 2006.

Selected Curatorial
2015-2020 LOG - Low Occupancy Gallery; Co-Director; Chapel Hill, NC
2016 Past Tense/Future Perfect; The Scrap Exchange; Durham, NC; Co-curated
2015 Static Cling 2; Brooklyn Academy of Music; Brooklyn, NY; Co-curated
2014 Static Cling; Penelope; Queens, NY; Co-curated

Writing
2018-2020 The Coastal Post; Art Blog Contributor; New York, NY
2019 Burnaway; Voice of Art in the South; Atlanta, GA

Education
2007 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Chapel Hill, North Carolina; MFA Painting
2004 Winthrop University; Rock Hill, South Carolina; BFA Painting; Art History minor
2001 Marchutz School of Art; Aix-en-Provence, France