Maria Helena Toscano is a Venezuelan/Colombian artist and award-winner designer based between London and Berlin. As a South American immigrant, she challenges existing models and notions of identity, citizenship, borders, and belonging. Her work is influenced by the theoretical frameworks of Latin American authors such as Gloria Anzaldúa and Walter D. Mignolo, particularly in the realms of decolonial and border thinking, as well as Mestiza consciousness. Using various mediums such as video, performance, installation, sound, sculpture, text, and mixed media, her work examines the impact of extractivism, the uprooting of beliefs and knowledge, migration, and displacement. She highlights the interconnectedness of people and cultures, seeking to illuminate, understand, and dissect the contemporary Latina experience and its roots.

With a strong spiritual dimension, a significant aspect of her practice involves utilizing art as a healing mechanism. Her projects emphasize experimental processes that are activated and deeply influenced by her surroundings and the contrasts between city, nature, our bodies, and histories. She likes to start a project with discarded materials, relating them to a concept or idea, while also allowing intuition and emotion to guide the process. Her work often features materials chosen for their conceptual significance, such as banknotes, passports, tree roots, or ashes, embracing non-traditional elements where ongoing processes continue to shape them.

 For new projects, ideas, and inquiries, please get in touch. mhtoscano@gmail.com  For new projects, ideas, and inquiries, please get in touch. mhtoscano@gmail.com

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

• (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)

• ONE EXTENDED MEDITATION, Copeland Gallery, London, UK (Oct 2024)
  
• RIPPLES, Hypha studios, Sugar House Island, London, UK (Aug - Sep 2024)
  
• Contemporary Art Practice MA Graduation Show, Royal College of Art, London, UK (Jun 2024)
  
• Occult Surge, Moosey Gallery Hoxton, London, UK (May 2024)
  
• Traveling Memories, The Modern Showroom Shoreditch, London, UK (May 2024)
• William Blake and Conflict: Beyond Borders and Forms, Queen’s College, Cambridge, UK (Apr 2024)
• The Regenerative Power of War in the Arts, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK (Apr 2024)
  
• The CAPiverse: Towards Levitation, TATE Modern, London, UK (Apr 2024)
  
• 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)

• Cacerolazo Aunar, Copeland Gallery, London, UK (Oct 2024)

• The Shell & The Root II, Hypha studios, Sugar House Island, London, UK (Aug 2024)
• The Shell & The Root I, Royal College of Art, London, UK (Jan 2024)
  
• Welcome to the UK, Ugly Duck, London, UK (Mar 2024)
  
• The Body Weight of Passports, Site-specific, Brike Lane, London, UK (Sep 2022)
• GLASS Speaks in five (5) different tongues, White Rectangle [] Berlin, DE (Jul 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, (2019)
  

• 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, (2018)

• Featured in Behance, Motion Served, (2019)
• Featured in Idn World, (2017)

• 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)