I enjoy creating and spreading knowledgeable content for everyone around the world and try my best not to leave even the smallest of mistakes go unnoticed.
She is the daughter of an artist mother, and an architect father, she studied in the Superior School of Fine Arts of Lisbon and exhibits her work since 1994.
Has a studio in Marvão, in Quinta do Barrieiro, Alentejo, Portugal, where she lives and works since 1999 and where she is developing her project, Alentejo sculpture park.
The books open doors for her to fly to unknown stops, where she finds much of her inspiration, showing how they are an open window to the world. Traveling companion of Camões, Fernão Mendes Pinto, Fernando Pessoa, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Gonçalo M. Tavares, among other writers, she carves her digressions on the iron, marble and bronze, inviting the public to join her in her flights, to transcend, discover and penetrate into the core, in order to contemplate and transmit, demystify and to make us the pedagogy of a fragile planet but always open to all of us.
She struggles with hard materials, as if it were paper, with its natural expressions, the oxides, the textures, the colours or the fractures, in a permanent asceticism to transmit the beautiful, the unimaginable that thrill us, moves us and transport us to a path full of endless discoveries. It takes us to an enchantment to hear the resonance of a world unknown to us and where we want to penetrate into an infinite space of its dreams, into free imagination.
Her works are part of numerous public and private collections, in Portugal, Belgium, Spain, China, United States, Lithuania, Italy.
"The stone flies, floats, runs, speaks... just like the words!", (Maria Leal da Costa).
Biography
Maria Leal da Costa was born in Évora, in 1964. She took the Interiors course at António Arroio School and between 1982 and 1986 attended the Sculpture course at Superior School of Fine Arts of Lisbon. She exhibits her work since 1994. She has a studio in Quinta do Barrieiro, Marvão, Portugal, where she lives and works since 1999.
2015
Publication of the presentation of the sculpture “D’Amor”, in “Public Sculpture Guide of the City of Évora”, by the “Pró-Evora” Group
Nominated for the award – LUX Plastic Arts 2014
2014
First prize of the Annual Saloon of the National Society of Fine Arts (SNBA) for the “Correntes de água (Watercourses)” work
2013
“Career Recognition/Plastic Arts” Prize, “Mais Alentejo” Gala
2011
Publication of the book “VOAR, poems and pictures resting on the sculptures of Maria Leal da Costa”
2008
She was awarded the “Mais Artes” prize at “Mais Alentejo” Gala
2007
Portugal’s representative at Stone Sculpture Symposium Vilnoja 2007, Lithuania, with the organization acquiring the work “O Poder do Silêncio (The Power of Silence)”
2006
“Abanico”, selected sculpture for the VIII “Certame de Artes Plásticas Sala el Brocense da Diputación de Cáceres”, Spain
2004
Spain, 1st place in the XI Iberian Award of Sculpture, City of Punta Umbría
Spain, Vigo, honorable mention, Conxemar II Plastic Arts Competition
Spain, selected for the International Competition of Sculpture in the Culture House in Villafranca de los Barros
Spain, Salinas, selected for the III Bienal Internacional de Arte de la Mar
2003
1st place in the public competition for the conception and execution of the monument to the Alter-Real Horse in Alter do Chão, Portugal
Spain, selected for the X Iberian Award of Sculpture, City of Punta Umbría, Spain
2002
Participation in the symposium and workshop held by the Municipality of Vila Viçosa, Portugal
2015
“Leituras líticas (Lithic Readings)”, Belgium, Brussels, Brasil House
“Pontos de Partida (Starting Points)” Portugal, Marvão Castle and Village
2014
Land Art Exhibition: “A vida tranquila, o verde da serra, o brilho do luar (The quiet life, the green of the mountain, the moonlight shining”, Portugal, Portalegre, Tarro Garden
“A essência das coisas - esculturas habitáveis (The essence of things – habitable sculptures)”, Portugal, Portalegre Castle
“Pontos de Partida (Starting Points)” Portugal, Marvão Castle and Village
Certame Art Shopping, Caroussel du Louvre, Paris
2013
“Debaixo destas asas me aconchego (Cozy under these wings)”, China, Macau, Albergue Gallery SCM
Land art exhibition: “A vida tranquila, o verde da serra, o brilho do luar (The quiet life, the green of the mountain, the moonlight shining)”, Portalegre, Tarro Garden
2012
“Voar (To fly)”, Évora, Municipal Museum
“Un dialogo famigliare”, Italy, Roma, Instituto Portoghese di Sant´Antonio
“Flor da realeza (Royal flower)”, Odivelas, Municipal Gallery
“A beleza no silêncio de um olhar (The beauty in the silence of a look)”, Oleiros, Municipal Gallery
2011
“Instalação Voar (To Fly Installation)”, Évora, Municipal Museum
“As quatro partes das esferas (The four parts of the spheres)” Lisbon, São Mamede Gallery
“O contorno elementar (Elementary outline)”, Redondo, São Paulo da Serra d’Ossa Convent
“Ikebana”, Barcelos, Municipal Gallery
2010
“Voar (To Fly)”, Latvia, Riga, Ventspils and Jurmala cities
“Ritmanálise”, Porto, City Council
“Velas são asas que apontam para o céu (Candles are wings that point to the sky)”, Vila Franca de Xira, Municipal Gallery
2009
She integrated the “Vilnius European Capital of Culture” in Lithuania, invited by Meno Nisa Gallery, with the exhibition “To Fly”, in the cities of Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipeda
2008
“Fernão Mendes Pinto”, Matosinhos
“Pedro e Inês”, Alter do Chão Castle
Tribute to the painter Charrua, Lisbon, Portalegre tapestries Gallery
Lisbon, Assembly of the Portuguese Republic
2007
“Enlaces (Links)”, Spain, Sevilha e Belgium, Brussels, integrated in the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union, and supported by the Luso-Spanish Foundation
