Maria Helena Toscano is a conceptual artist and multidisciplinary award-winner designer from Venezuela and Colombia, based in Berlin & London. She is the creative director of London based studio ICONIC. As a contemporary artist, she aims to challenge existing models and ideas around citizenship, identity, borders, privilege, and restrictions. Using various mediums, such as video, performance, installation, sound, sculpture, and mixed media, her work questions the impact of border policies and highlights the interconnectedness of people and cultures. Her work is informed by the theoretical framework of decolonial thinking, she draws inspiration from ideas such as Carl Jung’s concepts of “the spirit of the times and the spirits of the depths,” as well as Mestiza double consciousness from Gloria Anzaldúa. As an immigrant, she relates to multiple cultures and rejects assimilation in favor of hybridization. Her projects emphasize experimental processes that are activated and deeply influenced by certain sites. She uses art as a healing mechanism.

 For new projects, ideas, interesting stuff such as activism, whistleblowing, art & conflict in the 21st century – everything pro humanity get in touch.

 Projekte mit einem sozialen Sinn und Zweck, sowie Themen wie Aktivismus, Kunst und Rebellion im 21. Jahrhundert interessieren sie in ihrer Arbeit besonders.

• Welcome to the UK, Ugly Duck, London, UK (Mar 2024)
• Rites & Rituals, Safehouse 1, Peckham, London, UK (Feb 2024)
  
• Prophecy of Future Extinctions, CAP Space Gallery, RCA Battersea, London, UK (Dec 2023)
• ACROSS & OVER. Royal College of Art, HSBC HQ, Canary Wharf, London, UK (Nov. 2023 - Feb. 2024)
  
• Perspectives on Queer Hedonism, Club Silly, Brixton, London, UK (Sep 2023)
  
• Last Night Collective Vol 1: Quintesenti, W1 Curates Studios, London, UK (March 2023)
• Exhibition Poor.img. Royal College of Art, The MediaWorks, London, UK (Jan 2023)
• Co-Curation. Die Hasen Stunde, White Rectangle [] Berlin, DE (Nov 2021)
  

• Published in RCA X HSBC Across & Over Exhibition, 2023
• Published in Sampler 87 Royal College of Art, 2023
  
• Published in Posters can help, Slanted Publishers, 2023
• Sole Authorship: GLASS Speaks in five (5) different tongues, 2022
  
• Sole Authorship: Wet Paper Smells After Two (2) Days, 2021
  
• Co-authorship: Die Hasen Stunde Nr.01 (The Hour of the Hare), 2021
• Published in Visual Harmony, Send Points publishing house
  

• Royal College of Art. Study Costs Bursary Scholarship 2023
  
• Winner in Latin American Design Awards 2022
  
• Winner in Latin American Design Awards 2019
• Nominated in awwwards

• Featured in Behance, Motion Served
• Featured in Idn World

• Iconic Consulting Ltd, Creative Partner, Creative Director & Concept Developer, London, UK (2019-)

• ST. Oberholz Consulting GmbH, Brand Activist; Creative direction & Art Direction, Berlin, DE (2019-)

• Scholz & Friends GmbH, Art Director; Motion graphics & Concept Developer, Berlin, DE (2016-2019)

• BLITZEN GmbH, Art Director; Motion graphics & Audiovisual Production, Berlin, DE (2015-2016)

• Iconic Consulting GmbH, Graphic Designer & Motion Graphics, Berlin, DE (2012 -2014)

• (MA) Contemporary Art Practice, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2024)
  

• Graduade Diploma in Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London, UK (2023)
  

• (MA) Media and Audiovisual Production , Aalborg University Esbjerg & Hochschule Ostwestfalen-Lippe DK, DE (2012)

• (BA) Communication Design, Instituto de Diseño de Caracas, Caracas, VE (2007)