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Maria Appleton (b.1997) is a textile artist based in Lisbon, Portugal.

Questioning the subjectivity present in urban systems, Maria Appleton’s practice materialises itself as an ongoing research of colour and form developed through multiple techniques of dyeing, weaving and printmaking. Her pieces unravel as chromatic in-prints onto a juxtaposition of layered cotton, silk and other industrial fabrics, defining a series of vibrant abstract transparencies.

Appleton delves into the dialogue established through the interaction of bodies in space, two elements that endure in a constant symbiotic relationship of metamorphosis with light. Probing architectural conceptions of space, she defies human perception by translating optic perspectives and tracking bodily movements. She sees the viewer as an active participant in the conception of the fabric itself, involved in a progressive sensorial experience open to interpretation.

Speculating on the nature of liminal spaces, a stage of emotional or physical alienation, her work merges multiple layers of geometric patterns which together disturb the perception of tangible presence and symbolic absence. These compositions create cartographic variations connected to conscious spaces of collective memory whilst triggering individual memories, dreams or physical sensations. Appleton chains, through these methods, a set of pulsing experiences, meant to trigger a part of a universe where the architecture of public and private meet.

Graduating from the Chelsea College of Arts in London in 2019, Appleton was since selected for various international residencies and has been invited to participate in several exhibitions across European galleries. She was selected in 2018 to the Kyoto Institute of Technology (2018, Kyoto, Japan) and the EMMA Institute where she developed Nicht eine Stadt, die war; stadt bad (2020, Pforzheim, Germany). In 2022, Appleton was invited by the French Institute to be a resident at the Cité Internationale des Arts (2022 in Paris, France; residency funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation). Her two solo shows included: Gaze to see, Gauze to perceive at Galeria Foco (2021, Lisbon) and Is There Yet Space for Light with HATCH gallery (2022, Paris). In July 2023, Appleton presented her first-ever commissioned public artwork at the invitation of Daniel Vial and Jean-Christophe Claude for ‘L’Art c’est du vent’. The artist has inaugurated her first solo institutional presentation, curated by Filippa Oliveira, this year at Casa da Cerca in Lisbon in 2023. She is currently presented a new solo exhibition at Espacio Tacuarí, supported by Collecíon Verges, in Buenos Aires (2024, Argentina).