Born in Turin, Maria Rosa Benso started painting under Margherita Carena, who belonged to the school of the Italian painter Felice Casorati. In the 1970s, she showed her work at group exhibitions.
Meanwhile, she graduated in English language and literature. Subsequently, she specialized in American literature, then in linguistics and semiotics. Furthermore, she studied Chinese, Arabic and Kiswahili languages.
This lead her to operate as project manager of on-site advanced professional language training systems with multinational organizations and universities in Italy and abroad. Hence, for two decades she travelled regularly to many European countries as well as to North and South America and China.
Yet, she never left painting. In reverse, professional travels and contacts allowed her to widen her knowledge of other cultures and of new artistic languages, ranging from the Arabic and Chinese arts of calligraphy to the American Action Painting.
In the late nineties, she definitively returned to painting as her main activity.
In 2011 she joined the Post Millennium New York School (PMNYS), a group of independent artists connected with MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, therefore developing contacts with artists and curators from MoMA, NYC.
In January 2018, MoMA, at their New York venue, inaugurated a four-week slideshow of works by students from their courses. On that occasion, of her studies on Robert Ryman was exhibited.
Maria Rosa Benso lives and works in Turin, Italy.
Maria Rosa Benso is a member, among others, of:
APA, Associazione Piemonte Arte, Turin
PMNYS, Post Millennium New York School, an international group of independent artists connected to MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA.
Maria Rosa Benso’s works are in private and public collections in Italy, France, Great Britain and the USA.
