Born in 1931 in Poznań, died in 1999 in Krakow. Graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Katowice. In the years 1950–1956 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, the Faculty of Sculpture, in the studio od Xawery Dunikowski. Initiator, together with her husband, Jerzy Bereś, of the cyclical exhibitions-contests called the Sculpture of the Year, which were held on regular basis for almost 20 years since 1962. Since 1979 member of the Krakow Group.
Her works are in the collections of the National Museums in Krakow, Wrocław, Poznań and Warsaw, the Silesian Museum in Katowice, the Museum of Arts in Łódź, Zachęta Gallery, the Center for Polish Sculpture in Orońsk, the Museum in Bochum and private collections.
The artistic work of Maria Pinińska-Bereś is one of the most original phenomenon in Polish post-war art. Under-estimated by critics, the artists developed her own, independent form of creation, a coherent artistic language based on a very personal tone. Her artwork is considered as feminist, even though the artist avoided such strict categorizing and rather emphasized the “figure” of a woman as the subject of her work. Maria Pinińska-Bereś presented her works in Bielska Gallery BWA: she took part in the exhibition “Woman about Woman” in 1996. During the vernissage, she performed he last, at it turned out later, performance Activities With Kitchen Appliances (Działania na przyrządy kuchenne), which was video recorder and turned out to be one of the very few recording of her performances. Bielska Gallery BWA also co-organized the artist’s retrospective exhibition, prepared by the Gallery “Bunkier Sztuki” in Krakow. The second part of the exhibition took place on Bielska Gallery BWA at the turn of 2000; arranged by Jerzy Bereś, the curators were Bożena Gajewska and Agata Smalcerz.