Meet Maria Theresa Barbist | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maria Theresa Barbist and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria Theresa, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I used to work as a psychologist and psychotherapist in Austria at a hospital. I really enjoyed my work, especially working with immigrant women and also with groups since I was trained in Psychodrama. I came to the US to study movement based art therapy at the Tamalpa Instiute in the San Francisco Bay Area and this is what really brought me to the arts and to the life that I’m living now. I started to create movement performances and later went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute. There was a point of no return, where I felt like even if I wanted to come back to my old life because of the security that my job gave me, the health insurance and pension etc. I wouldn’t have been able to do it. Since I felt more like myself creating art than I had ever before in my life.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I started my artistic journey later in life. After I turned 30 I took a sabbatical from my job as a psychologist to study art therapy in California. I found myself amongst dancers and creative folks that wanted to learn more about therapy and psychology. I came from the other side and wanted to learn more about dance and creativity. It was very hard at the beginning to not feel like a complete failure. I was very critical of everything I made, how I moved etc. In my first semester in art school I talked to one of my professors, Ana Teresa Fernandez, and I said to her: Listen I have no idea if I an pull this off. I’m completely new to this whole art making thing and all I really studied was psychology and psychotherapy. But she said that my previous career, everything that I had learned until this point will inform my artistic practice and she was right.

In San Francisco I created performances that were informed by my own struggles with childhood trauma, that were very much informed by the principles of art therapy I had studied and I still follow the concepts I learned at the Tamalpa Institute of Identiy, Confront, Release, Change and Growth as well as moving my paintings which has become the core of my practice.

In the last exhibition I was able to build a huge cylinder to stretch my large scale painting in the round and then have a video of me dancing infront of that painting displayed inside. That was definitely a break through moment, not just that from a vision, a sketch I was able to have this structure fabricated but because it also brought the different media of painting, performance and video together.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My favorite spot is the beach close to the Bass Museum and also South Pointe Park. I love to drive over the in the morning during the week and go for a walk before I had to the studio. Pura Vida in the Design District is definitely a favorite spot and also The Little Hen in Midtown I recently discovered. O1 Pizza in Wynwood and Motek in Miami Beach. I love seeing the new exhibitions at the Margulies Collection every year right before Art Basel and the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach is a favorite day trip spot. Shark Valley in the Everglades for a bike ride or scuba diving in the Keys which I don’t get to do often enough.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Main credit would have to go to the San Francisco Art Institute and my teachers there, especially Liam Everett as well as to the Tamalpa Institute. They put me on the journey that I am now. There are many others who helped me along the way, like the Bakehouse Art Complex, where I found a studio space and a community when I first moved to Miami 10 years ago. There is also my family who supported me throughout my studies and many friends here in Miami who I was able to collaborate with. A huge shoutout goes to Dainy Tapia who included me in a wonderful group exhibition titled WOMEN AT LARGE which took place last year at the Atchugarry Gallery in Miami. And then of course my husband, Eddie Arroyo, who is also an artist and understands when I need to be in the studio on the weekend instead of doing road trips.

Website: https://mariatheresabarbist.com

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mariatheresabarbist

Other: bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mariabarbist.bsky.social

Image Credits
Headshot by Pedro Wazzan
Konstellation Photos by Zaire Aranguren