Maria Jose de Simon

María José de Simón (b. 1963) is a Spanish painter, born in Santander, who has also worked in sculpture and printmaking. In 2011 Proceso described her as having lived in Mexico for five years. In 2026 she was working from a studio in the Roma Norte neighborhood of Mexico City. A CV published by Alzueta Gallery in Barcelona lists diplomas from Madrid in interior art and architecture (IADE, 1982) and graphic design (CEI, 1986), and engraving and screen-printing workshops at the Brita Prinz studio there.

In a February 2026 interview with Piece with Artist, she said her work had evolved gradually toward masses of color and ever simpler form. She has said that abstract expressionism moves her greatly, and named Guerrero, Still and Rothko as key to her painting. In a text for her 2012 exhibition Entre sombras, Luis Rius Caso traced in her painting echoes of lyrical-gestural abstraction and of “geometría sensible” (sensitive geometry).

In 2011 the Fundación Sebastián in Mexico City showed Influencias, about 90 of her oil paintings on canvas, and in December 2012 it opened Entre sombras. Traeger & Pinto Arte Contemporáneo showed Estructuras y trayectos in 2013, and in 2014 the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguérez in Zacatecas presented Luto riguroso during the 28th Festival Cultural Zacatecas. In 2018 the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de San Luis Potosí showed Materia animada, setting abstract acrylics on canvas beside sculpture made from iron, concrete and tree trunks she had found abandoned in streets and, in some cases, in the trash. By October it was on view at MACAY in Mérida, in rooms 10 and 11, with about 40 pieces.

GCC Arte Contemporáneo (Galería Casa Colón) in Mérida lists untitled acrylics on canvas by her dated 2021 and 2023, and in May 2025 it included her in the group exhibition CONÓCENOS. She also designs jewelry. In the same interview she described moving from oil and brush to acrylic, then to a roller and window-cleaning tools; she now paints with her hands, which she said brings her closer to the paint and the canvas.