Maria Thereza Alves was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1961. She lives and works in Berlin.
Her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial and at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, among others. Alves’ projects are researched-based and developed from her interactions with the physical and social environments of the places she lives or visits for exhibitions and residencies. In particular, she investigates the consequences of colonial politics by observing the flora of these locations.

Maria Thereza has recently exhibited in the Paris Triennial, Guangzhou Triennial, (d)OCUMENTA 13 in Kassel, the Sao Paulo Biennial, the Taipei Biennial, Manifesta in Trento, the Prague Biennal, the Athens Biennal and the Lyon Biennal where she received the Prix de la Francophonie. In 2015 she partipated to Art Dubaï and set up a major solo exhibition in the Centre Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC), Seville, Spain. In 2017 she has been awarded by the Vera List Prize.