María Magdalena Campos-Pons (b. 1959) makes powerful work that holds and beholds the stories of historically silenced peoples and urges societal change. Her journey as an artist, teacher, and activist has taken her from Cuba through the United States, and her autobiographical compositions honor her Nigerian and Chinese ancestors while also facing the future. With an artistic practice that crosses boundaries, intertwines media—from photography to sculpture, film to performance—and references traditions and beliefs ranging from feminism to Santería, Campos-Pons’s work is deeply layered and complex.

This volume, the first critical look at the artist’s oeuvre in nearly two decades, surveys the concerns, materials, and places invoked throughout her forty-year career. Thoughtful essays explore her vibrant, arresting artwork, which confronts issues of agency and the construction of race and belonging and challenges us to reckon with these issues in our own lives.

Hardcover

216 pages

9 x 1 x 10.5 in.

ISBN: 9781606068588

María Magdalena Campos-Pons combines and crosses diverse artistic practices, including photography, painting, sculpture, film, video, and performance. Her work addresses issues of history, memory, gender, and religion, while investigating how each of these themes informs identity formation. Inspired by the traditions and rituals of her ancestors, the artist’s imagery and performances honor the labor of Black bodies on indigo and sugar plantations, renew Catholic and Santería religious practices, and celebrate revolutionary uprisings in the Americas. Born in Cuba and currently based in Nashville, she has presented solo exhibitions and performances at distinguished institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; among many others. Additionally, her work is held in more than thirty museum collections around the world.