The artist Maura Biava (1970) found fame with her underwater portraits, in which she plays the principal role. The photographs are poetic; Biava ‘floats’, fully clad, in the azure water. These photos are ‘recordings’ of a performance under water; for example, in this way Biava shows the seawater blending with sand, in which she makes powerful circular movements with her arms. These movements, which create motion through the energy of her own physicality, are an important theme in her work. Biava has now also worked in ceramics for more than ten years, and in this her own strength and action play a role. Through her firm kneading of the clay a shape comes into being that is reminiscent of a soft ice or a star. The shape is then transformed into a ceramic sculpture.

Whoever reads the above text would probably not say that mathematical formulae form the basis of the shapes that Biava creates. The actual source of her work is nature; in the manner in which she makes use of her own physical energy, but she does indeed also make use of mathematical formulae. She is inspired by the hidden laws of nature, but uses data from mathematical formulae to breathe life into shapes. The shapes are computerized and abstract. Although these shapes are generated by a computer program, they are also strikingly aesthetic and soft. In 2016 Biava published a book entitled Form Informed, with colour prints of the forms that she crated in this manner. These prints are now to be seen in the Quist display case in combination with several sculptures, as the overture to a larger presentation of Biava’s work that is to be held in 2020.

Maura Biava (1970) lives and works in Amsterdam. She of is Italian origin, and graduated in 1992 at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. She continued her studies at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, where she remained after graduating in 1999. In addition to her work as an artist she is also a lecturer in sculpture at the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in The Hague and visiting lecturer in ceramics at the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.