Dadamaino

Eduarda Emilia Maino was born in Milan on October 2, 1935. She obtained a degree in medicine but was self-taught and dedicated herself to painting.
In 1959 he joined Azimuth, a Milanese experimental group (made up of Bonalumi, Castellani and Manzoni) that maintained close contacts with the Zero Group in Germany and Heinz Mack, the Nul Group in the Netherlands and the Motus Group in France.
In 1961 the artist was invited to an exhibition in the Netherlands, where, due to a printing error, his name was written as one word, Dadamaino. From 1963-64 he will always adopt this stage name.
Starting in the 1970s, Dadamaino’s work developed in a new direction: that of the sign. The artist invents a series of graphic signs with which he meticulously fills his works. With the Alphabet of the mind, he creates seven alphabetic characters, with which he composes a series of ‘letters’ in which he systematically repeats a single sign. In the next cycle, The facts of life, reuse the same signs.
These works are exhibited in a personal room at the Venice Biennale in 1980. Three years later the Pavilion of Contemporary Art (PAC) dedicates a retrospective to her and in 1990 Dadamaino is once again present at the Venice Biennale. A large anthological exhibition was organized in 2000 by the Bochum Museum in the city of Bochum. Dadamaino died in Milan on April 13, 2000.