Maria Plotnikova was born and raised in Ukraine, at the moment the country started its recovery from Soviet totalitarian trauma. Her grandfather was a die-hard communist and former KGB agent, her parents are Russian-speaking deeply religious orthodox Christians—still residing there, and Plotnikova, who identifies as a queer, spent her early years in Ukraine during the period of its national identity search.

In 2015 she continued her art practice in the UK where she explored the concept of social sculpture at Oxford Brookes University. She took part in many art festivals and group exhibitions in Modern Art Oxford gallery and others. In 2017, Plotnikova was awarded the first prize in Ukraine’s biennale festival “Tomorrow that never came” and had a solo show at IZOLYATSIA, Ukraine. In 2019 Plotnikova was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to the US to complete her MFA degree at SAIC.