Biography

Architect and Sculptor

She creates mainly wooden, bronze or terracotta sculptures

Place: Turin, Italy

Maria Primolan was born in 1971 in Turin; she first attended Vittorio Veneto Art School in the Piedmontese state capital, then she graduated in Architecture at Polytechnic of Turin.

Portraits sculptures

In 2016-2017 she startes several works inspired to the great musician and artist David Bowie, who died in January 2016, committing herself to the lime wood sculpture “The Angel’s Gift”. In 2017 Maria creates“Bowie Bust of Beckenham-Bromley”, lime wooden bust dedicated to David Bowie entitled “Goodbye Mr Bowie”, exposed at the Library of Beckenham, Borough of Bromley, London. In 2018 she ends two bust of terracotta dedicated to David Bowie inspired to Scary Monsters Record images, and Space Oddity Cover Record.

In 2018-2023 she created many sculptures portrait dedicated to David Bowie made of clay and raku ceramic. Three 3D wall panel made of painted ceramic inspired by David Bowie’s cover album. In 2020 she started collaboration with BowieGallery.com. In 2019-2022 she created Bruce Springsteen,  Freddie Mercury, Harry Styles and Prince sculpture portraits.

 

Other artworks

Up to 2010 she is mainly involved in furniture design, drawing and producing unique pieces of furniture and artistic handicraft creating many wooden everyday things.

Since 2010 she has gone back to wooden sculpting.

In 2011 she sculpts the bust of Camillo Benso Count of Cavour for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. For this sculpture she used a special technique gluing together overlapped boards, each of different thickness and different extract – walnut, durmast, cherry wood; once built the block, it was than sculpted using the traditional tools for wood carving.

Between 2011 and 2012 she creates a panel carving lime wood representing “Supper at Emmaus” for the altar of the church of Trana (Turin). The work is done gluing together many boards and obtaining then a parallelepiped sculpted in high relief.

In 2012 she creates bronze tiles on the main door of Mary’s Nativity Church in Trana representing eight Virgin Mary’s privileges.

In 2015 she creates – together with Gregorio Balestra – the “Formella del Pellegrino” (the Tile of the Pilgrim) for Museo della Sindone (Museum of the Holy Shroud) to celebrate the exhibition of the Holy Shroud; she also creates the wooden carved boxes used for the moving of the Holy Shroud’s full copy.

In 2016-2017 she startes several works inspired to the great musician and artist David Bowie, who died in January 2016, committing herself to the lime wood sculpture “The Angel’s Gift”.

In 2017 she realizes – together with Gregorio Balestra – the wooden monument “La Fonte del Latte” (The Well of Milk) at Municipio di Usseglio (Town Hall of Usseglio – Turin).