Maria Lai

Maria Lai (27 September 1919 – 16 April 2013) was an Italian artist from the island of Sardinia.

Early life and education She was born in Ulassai, Nuoro, Sardinia, on 27 September 1919. This was followed by various other installations in different towns, and a series of artworks in Ulassai which remain and form an open air art exhibition throughout the town.

Lai's work has been exhibited in group exhibitions from 1943 onwards and in solo and two-person shows from 1953, in many venues in Italy but including exhibitions in Stockholm, Sweden in 1958, Sydney, Australia in 1983, three university libraries in Germany in 1989 and Maria Lai incontra la Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana at the Vatican Library in 2022. A major retrospective exhibition of her work was held in the MAXXI (National Museum of 21st-century arts) in Rome in 2019, to mark the centenary of her birth. The exhibition was titled Tenendo per mano il sole (Holding the Sun by the Hand), which was the title of a "sewn fable" she had created in 1984. Maria Lai. A Journey to America (15 November 2024 – 21 July 2025) was Lai's first North American museum show and was held at Magazzino Italian Art in Cold Spring, N.Y.

140 of Lai's works are displayed in the former railway station of Ulassai, a contemporary art museum named "", which Lai established in 2006.

Christie's have sold several of Lai's works: as examples, her 1979 Autobiografia 118, of "thread, wood and canvas laid down on cardboard" and measuring was sold in 2021 for 18,750 Euros, and her 1989 Lenzuolo (Bed Sheet), of "thread and fabric laid down on fabric" and sold in 2018 for £150,000 after a pre-sale estimate of £20,000-£30,000.

Recognition In 2004, Lai was awarded an Honorary Degree in Literature by the University of Cagliari.

Death Maria Lai died on 16 April 2013 in Cardedu, Province of Nuoro, where she had lived since the 2000s. She is buried in the cemetery of Ulassai.