MARIA LUISA Persson is the complete name of the artist today. The new family name is a consequence of her marriage with a Swedish man. But she was born and grown up in Brazil, in a small town named Palmeira dos Indios in the north-eastern part of the country. There she took the first steps on her career, a career within a branch that many people looked down upon. And only a few persons believed in her.

As the stubborn and rebellic person she was and is, she convinced through her paintings the experts and lovers of art in her homestate Alagoas. She was invited to several exhibitions. She was only 22 years old when she had her first exhibition at the Teatro Deodoro, a combination of city theatre and art gallery in Maceio, the capital of the state. The paintings at that time were mostly directly influenced by her environment; drought, barren earth and poverty, but also by the joy that can light up also the most miserable situations of life.

Still, 43 years after Maria Luisa's first exhibition, we can still find influences from her past in her paintings. But her way to express herself has changed - as her way to use colours. Many people who follows Maria Luisa think that her way of using colours is her strongest characteristics. She doesn't agree that the strong colours also are typical for her explosive temperament, but her family and close friends declare with emphasis that there is no doubt about it.

Since year 2002 she mostly paint in oil collage that she hade made by paper.

Maria Luisa has during her years in Sweden, since 1973, had a lot of exhibitions, not least in some of the biggest cities. She is also has participated exhibitions in USA (New York), England (London), Germany (Leipzig, Bremen and Hamburg) and Denmark. During 15 years Mara Luisa also has worked as a teacher of art.

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