A soft-touch sketchbook. Cover design is The Calling, 2008.

The first multimedia survey of the artist’s work since 2007, Behold highlights the artist’s dedication to creating new modes of understanding, as well as her engagement with interconnected historical and present-day challenges. These themes are examined through Campos-Pons’s performance-based practice and centering of Yoruba-derived Santería symbolism, as well as her work with communities in Boston, Cuba, Italy, and Nashville (her current residence).

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.