Maria Nordman

Maria Nordman, born in bi-cultural Silesia, currently lives in Los Angeles. Nordman is known as one of the most visionary artists to emerge from California in the 1960s and 70s. Nordman’s focus on direct experience and the ‘co-authorial role’ she ascribes to visitors to her works foreshadows practices of artists who emerged in the 1990’s. Her work relies on chance, time and place to create unique experiences where the roles of viewer and producer begin to meld, allowing participants to construct their own narrative. From 1967-87 she chose to avoid catalogues of her work, instead favoring a "living catalogue held in personal memory.” 

Maria Nordman’s solo exhibitions, which are often accompanied by projects in the city have been shown at the following institutions: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany (2014),  SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (2013), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2011-12), Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal (2007), MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland, (2009), UNESCO  Zeche Zollverein, Essen, Germany (2009), and at Dia Art Foundation and in Central Park New York  (1990-91).

In June 2021 Nordman's work can be seen as part of the Momentum 11 Biennale, Norway. She participated in  Documentas 6, 7, 8  (1977, 1982, 1987) and was included twice in Skulptur.Projekte Münster in Germany (1997, 1987). In 2015, three of her Standing Pictures & The Whisper were included in Event Sculpture at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds. Recent group exhibitions have taken place at the Museau de Arte Contemporanea, Porto, Portugal; Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Genève (both 2015); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California (2012); and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles California (2011).