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February Issue
2011
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American
Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Maria Magdalena
Campos-Pons
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American
Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC, is presenting the exhibit, What
My Mother Told Me: The Art of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons,
featuring works by this Internationally celebrated Afro-Cuban
artist, on view through June 19, 2011.
"What My Mother Told Me may be one of the most important
exhibitions the Gantt Center has mounted to-date," said David
Taylor, president & CEO. "And because Maria Magdalena
is a native Spanish speaker, we are taking extra steps to welcome
the area's growing Hispanic community to view the exhibit. In
light of that, our gallery guides and other materials will be
presented in both English and Spanish."
Born in Mantanzas, Cuba, Campos-Pons' work echoes the lives of
African descendants rooted in Cuba and of legions of fellow travelers
from around the world. It has emerged from an early 1980s focus
on painting and the discussion of Cuban mixed cultural heritage
to incisive questioning, critique and insertion of the body in
contemporary narratives of the present. The work in this exhibition
builds upon a dialogue of culture, history, art and identity and
define the core of who Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons is as a woman,
an expatriate and a Cuban.
Campos-Pons creates paintings, installations, and sculptures,
along with video and poetry. All of these are means to capture
art that often relates to exile, longing, separation, and even
nostalgia, which she calls 'memory without pain.'
Campos-Pons has exhibited internationally since 1984 when she
won Honorable Mention at the XVIII Cagnes-sur-Mer Painting
Competition in France and the Bunting Fellowship in Visual
Arts at Harvard in 1993. Solo shows followed at MoMA, the Venice
Biennale 2001, Johannesburg Biennial, the First
Liverpool Biennial, the Dak'ART Biennial in Senegal
and the Guangzhou Triennial in China.
Recognized as an upcoming young leader of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts by its Women's Chapter, Campos-Pons was also sited
among the 100 Most Influential Latinos and honored in 2008 as
Harvard launched a campaign to build its new art museum.
Campos-Pons's work can be found in several outstanding collections
including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the
Vancouver Art Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo,
New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Fine Arts in
Boston. Campos-Pons has lectured at the Tate Modern in London,
the Brooklyn Museum, the School of Art in Dakar, Senegal and at
Harvard.
Founded in 1974, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American
Arts + Culture (formerly the Afro-American Cultural Center) exists
to present, preserve and promote African-American art, culture
and history. The Harvey B. Gantt Center is an epicenter for the
best in visual, performing and literary arts and leads community
outreach initiatives and arts education programs.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery
listings, call the Center at 704/547-3700 or visit (www.ganttcenter.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2011 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2011 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.