Maria Madeira

Born in Gleno, Tim­or-Leste 1966
Lives and works in Perth, Australia

Maria Madeira is one of Timor-Leste’s most sig­nif­i­cant con­tem­po­rary visu­al artists with an inter­na­tion­al­ly regard­ed prac­tice deeply embed­ded in Tim­or-Leste tra­di­tions, con­cerns and his­to­ries. She is based in Timor-Leste’s cap­i­tal, Dili and Perth, Aus­tralia, where she migrat­ed with her fam­i­ly in 1983 fol­low­ing sev­en years in a refugee camp in Por­tu­gal. A promi­nent fig­ure in Timor-Leste’s recov­ery since it achieved inde­pen­dence twen­­ty-five years ago, Madeira has recent­ly been artist-in-res­i­­dence at Dili’s Fun­dação Ori­ente.

Madeira was born in the vil­lage of Gleno in the Ermera region of Tim­or-Leste. The Indone­sian régime invad­ed in 1975, and her fam­i­ly was evac­u­at­ed to Por­tu­gal the fol­low­ing year. She spent most of the fol­low­ing sev­en years in a refugee camp run by the Red Cross on the out­skirts of Lis­bon and migrat­ed with her fam­i­ly to Aus­tralia in 1983.

Over the years, she obtained sev­er­al aca­d­e­m­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tions. She grad­u­at­ed with a B.A. Fine Arts (Visu­al Arts) Degree from Curtin Uni­ver­si­ty, Perth in 1991. Two years lat­er she received a Grad­u­ate Diplo­ma of Edu­ca­tion (Major in Art) from the same uni­ver­si­ty. In 1996, she obtained her sec­ond degree, a B.A. in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence from Mur­doch Uni­ver­si­ty. In 2019, she com­plet­ed a Doc­tor of Phi­los­o­phy in Art from Curtin Uni­ver­si­ty.

Between 1996 and 2000, she worked in West­ern Aus­tralia as a high school art teacher, visu­al artist and cul­tur­al advi­sor for sev­er­al arts and cul­tur­al organ­i­sa­tions. Between 2000 – 2004, she returned to Tim­or-Leste to con­tribute to the recov­ery, rebuild­ing and rede­vel­op­ment of Tim­or-Leste, the newest nation in Asia.

Select­ed exhi­bi­tions include: ‘Art of Peace: Art After War’, The Art Gallery of West­ern Aus­tralia, Perth, 2025; ‘Intel­li­gence of Paint­ing’, Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art Aus­tralia, Syd­ney, 2025, ‘Musafiri: Of Trav­ellers and Guests’, House of World Cul­tures, Berlin, 2025; ‘Bangkok Art Bien­nale: Nur­ture Gaia’, Thai­land, 2024 – 25; ‘Expo­sure’, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Mel­bourne, 2024; ‘Kiss and Don’t Tell, 60th Inter­na­tion­al Venice Bien­nale’ (rep­re­sent­ing Tim­or-Leste); ‘Flow­ery Talk’, Fun­dação Ori­ente, Dili, Tim­or-Leste, 2023 – 24; ‘Mana Maria’, Chi­ang Mai Uni­ver­si­ty, Thai­land 2022; ‘A Place in the Sun’, Fun­dação Ori­ente, Dili, Tim­or-Leste, 2022; ‘Tim­or-Leste: An Artis­tic Per­spec­tive’, Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado, 2019; ‘Ina Lou (Dear Moth­er Earth)’, Galeri Cip­ta II, Jakar­ta, 2014; ‘Famil­iar Steps’, Fes­ti­val da Luso­fo­nia, Macau, 2011 and ‘Silent Voic­es,’ Can­nery Arts Cen­tre, Esper­ance, West­ern Aus­tralia, 2007.