Maria Stabio

Maria Stabio, born in San Francisco, California, is a first generation Filipino-American interdisciplinary artist working in painting and social practice. Graduated with a BFA in Painting from Boston University and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, she has been rewarded several artist residencies, with works shown at multiple galleries throughout the United States.

In her own words she describes her latest series as follows, “I tell stories about my experience as a mixed race individual through painting. My mother, who was born in the Philippines and came to America when she was in her early 30s, met my father in San Francisco. I have always identified as American and was never really able to explore my mother's heritage or culture until recently. In the past few years, I have visited the Philippines twice and have started to become closer to my family there. These paintings are about the beginning of building a new identity and a new understanding of what it means to be from two vastly different cultures, part of both and also part of neither.”

In 2012, Maria was a recipient of the Artist in Residence Fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar where she taught drawing and painting to undergraduate students. In the same year, her second solo exhibition, Carthage Site opened at Katara Art Center in Doha. In late 2015, she began 2MF, a series of community meetings, with fellow artist Sonya Derman.