Virginia Maksymowicz was born in 1952 in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Philadelphia, PA. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York (1973) and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego (1977).

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Upon returning to New York, Maksymowicz spent two years working under the auspices of the Cultural Council Foundation's CETA Artists Project (1978-79), a federally-funded program that employed 10,000 artists nationwide (the same number as the WPA's Federal Art Project).

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She has exhibited her work at the Franklin Furnace, Alternative Museum, the Elizabeth Foundation and Grey Gallery in New York City; the Mitchell Museum in Illinois; the Michener and Woodmere Museums in Pennsylvania; and in college, university and nonprofit galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad.

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She is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture (1984), and over the years has been honored with other grants and awards. Her artwork has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, the New York Times, New York Newsday, the New Art Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her series, The History of Art, appears on the cover of The Female Body, published by the University of Michigan Press.

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She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome (2006; 2012; 2014), an artist-in-residence at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia (2006-07), and a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center (2007).

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Maksymowicz is Professor Emerita of Art, Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.