Maria Martinez-Cañas
Maria Martinez-Cañas brings a sense of her own history and past, as well as a fresh and experimental attitude, to all of her work. Her medium can best be described loosely as "photo-based" in that over the last thirty years she has used virtually every photographic medium in realizing her ideas. Although her work can be technically elaborate, the process never gets in the way of the forcefulness and impact of her imagery. A collage aesthetic is central to her approach, for example her series Quince Sellos Cubanos (Fifteen Cuban Stamps) 1991-92 was inspired by gift of Cuban stamps given to her by her sister. She selected stamps in which the imagery inspired her own interpretation which again combines her cubist-Latin style with photographic images of Cuban landscape and architecture. Canas' generally works in a serial way, and the scale, technical methods and specific themes change, but is always driven by a spirit of questioning.
Since 2005 Canas has worked on several series, which are more personal in their exploration of her identity than all of her previous projects. These four projects, grouped together under the title of Tetralogy, were shown in a museum installation in the Freedom Tower, …
Maria Martinez-Cañas brings a sense of her own history and past, as well as a fresh and experimental attitude, to all of her work. Her medium can best be described loosely as "photo-based" in that over the last thirty years she has used virtually every photographic medium in realizing her ideas. Although her work can be technically elaborate, the process never gets in the way of the forcefulness and impact of her imagery. A collage aesthetic is central to her approach, for example her series Quince Sellos Cubanos (Fifteen Cuban Stamps) 1991-92 was inspired by gift of Cuban stamps given to her by her sister. She selected stamps in which the imagery inspired her own interpretation which again combines her cubist-Latin style with photographic images of Cuban landscape and architecture. Canas' generally works in a serial way, and the scale, technical methods and specific themes change, but is always driven by a spirit of questioning.
Since 2005 Canas has worked on several series, which are more personal in their exploration of her identity than all of her previous projects. These four projects, grouped together under the title of Tetralogy, were shown in a museum installation in the Freedom Tower, Miami during the winter of 2009/10. Although Tetralogy is comprised of discrete works, her methods have evolved and been shaped by several installation projects done in Miami and New York including installations at Wave Hill, Florida International University and Lehigh University.
Martinez-Cañas has exhibited her work in a number of solo exhibitions throughout the word including Julie Saul Gallery, New York, Freedom Tower, Miami, Schneider Gallery, Chicago, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., among others.
Courtesy of Julie Saul Gallery
Centro Cultural Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museé d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
France Museé du Centre George Pompidou, Paris, France
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MI
Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY