Sculptor, painter, printmaker, and designer, Maria Carmen de Queiroz Bastos was born in Recife, Brazil in 1935. Between the years 1959 and 1961, Carmen studied with sculptor Humberto Cozzo in Rio de Janeiro. She returned to Recife in 1962 and made sculptures at Bibiano Silva’s studio and then attended the MCP (Movimento da Cultura Popular) studying drawing with Abelardo da Hora, Wellington Virgolino and José Cláudio da Silva. At the XXI Salão de Pintura, held at the Pernambuco State Museum in 1962, she was awarded two first prizes in sculpture and drawing and that same year held her first solo exhibition of drawing and sculpture. In 1963, Carmen taught fabric painting at the MCP and participated in the Civilization of the Northeast exhibition at Solar do Unhão in Salvador.

Carmen was invited by Walter Zanini, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of São Paulo, to participate in the 1964 international PHASES movement, based in Paris. In 1966, she participated in the movement to create the Museum of Contemporary Art of Pernambuco, and the following year was included in the exhibition Oficina Pernambucana at the University of São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art. As a designer, she illustrated the book Casa Grande e Senzala (second edition) by Gilberto Freyre in 1968. Carmen began working in 1972 at the CIP Fabrics factory, in Camaragibe, Brazil. She was a designer, pattern designer, and colorist and remained working there until 1975.

In 1981, Carmen began working in lithography at Oficina Guaianases de Gravura in Olinda. She was given a special room to exhibit in the Salão de Arte Contemporânea de Pernambuco in 1989. Maria Carmen de Queiroz Bastos was awarded the AESO Award with the diploma for her contribution to the process of enriching Pernambuco culture, Olinda (PE) in 1998.

Carmen had numerous solo exhibitions including those in Recife; São Paulo; Lille, France; Brussels, Belgium, Mont Maur, France; and Lima, Peru. She also took part in many collaborative exhibitions around the world where her art garnered numerous awards. In addition to exhibiting her work several times in Recife, in collective and individual exhibitions, Maria Carmen's works was also shown in museums in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, the Strasbourg Museum of Modern Art and the Academia Brasileira de Letras.

Maria Carmen de Queiroz Bastos died in June 2014.