Lives and works in Araçuaí, Brazil
Daughter of a shoemaker and a laundress, she was born in Araçuaí, where she lives until today. Maria Lira developed her interest in ceramics and several handicrafts when she was a child watching her mother, Odília Borges Nogueira, building nativity scenes in raw clay. Later, she learned from her neighbor, known as Joana Poteira, techniques for extracting and baking clay.
She held her first exhibition in 1975 at Sesc Pompeia, in São Paulo, and, since then, has exhibited in several national and international institutions in Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, France, and the United States. Her work is characterized by the integration of a graphic language derived from natural pigments with the backlands landscape. Since the 1990s, she has dedicated herself to the body of work known as Bichos do Sertão, paintings of imaginary animals that make up a vast formal bestiary.
In her more than 40 years as an artist, Maria Lira has also positioned herself as a researcher, activist, and disseminator of artists and artisans from the Vale do Jequitinhonha, over which she developed a long work in collaboration with Friar Xico, a Dutch friar living in Brazil. With him, she also led the Coral Trovadores do Vale, whose repertoire was formed by the region's songbook. In 2010, they founded the Museum of Araçuaí, created with the objective of housing a collection of objects and documents that record the religiosity, customs, and crafts that make up the history of Araçuaí.
Her work has been studied by researcher Lélia Coelho Frota, one of the main authorities on Brazilian popular art, and, in 2007, her trajectory was honored in a play with her name directed by João das Neves. She also held exhibitions at the Programa Sala do Artista Popular and Museu Casa do Pontal, in Rio de Janeiro, and Centro de Arte Popular, in Belo Horizonte. In 2021, she held the exhibition Maria Lira Marques: Recent works at Bergamin & Gomide, now Gomide & Co.