Maria Mortati is an Artist and Museum Exhibit Designer, interested in examining and amplifying the relationship between public and institution, public and private. Her projects span formal exhibitions to short-term interventions, involving collaborations with other artists, communities, and staff. Her explorations include the edges of way-finding at the Hammer Museum, Fluxus and the public at the Walker Art Center, an interactive street-front exhibition at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in London and installations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Maria is a frequent panelist on the subject of experimental museum projects and innovative exhibition design practices. She has twice served as a panelist on the Innovation Lab at the Center for the Future of Museums, AAM Program Review Panel and as a Program Advisor for the Presidio Parklands projects and the Institute at the Golden Gate. Prior to museums, she had a career in Interaction Design working with Xerox PARC, Salon.com, Speck Design, among others. Maria is an adjunct professor in the graduate design program at California College of the Arts. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado, and an MFA in Design from Stanford University and a sense of humor.