New works from Maria Greenshields-Ziman’s Sub-Aqua and Shadows series will be featured in the European Cultural Centre exhibition Personal Structures at the Palazzo Mora, during the La Biennale di Venezia, April 20 – November 24, 2024.

Foraging materials from her surroundings in Downtown Los Angeles, Greenshields-Ziman draws on her background as a sculptor to create “windows” of dense botanicals captured in spray paint, charcoal, wood, and cardboard. These multimedia drawings are comprised of layers of connecting forms that exist simultaneously as a network of roots, nerves, or the branches of trees twisting in the wind. The sculptural elements of the series are a combination of fabrication and repurposing meaningful materials, a cobalt blue vase holds the welded representation of reed grass with beads from a great aunt’s necklace reimagined as seeds. Sub-Aqua and Shadows are explorations of mind and emotion through the artist’s lifelong relationship with nature. For Maria Greenshields-Ziman her creative process is an exercise in coaxing the inside out, recreating the textures and colors of the ponds, fields, and trees that have remained in her memory as a way to return to the freedom and wonder of childhood.

Personal Structures is a biennial art exhibition organized and hosted by the European Cultural Centre in Venice during La Biennale di Venezia. Starting in 2002 and based in Venice Italy since 2010, the concept was formed by artist René Rietmeyer who felt a growing trend of removing the hand of the artist. Personal Structures seeks to reestablish the artist as the sole creator and archivist of their perspective on the world. personalstructures.com

ABOUT THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL CENTRE, VENICE

Committed to fostering a vibrant intellectual and cultural exchange through an international network of creatives, the European Cultural Centre produces large-scale projects, curated exhibitions, publications, videos, and educational programs. ecc-italy.eu