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Press Release Checklist Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons Backyard Dreams December 15, 2005-February 11, 2006 Closed from December 24th - January 3rd Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons will have her first exhibition with the Julie Saul Gallery opening with a performance by the artist on Thursday, December 15th. The exhibition, Backyard Dreams, will include Polaroids, gouache paintings, and a video. Two of the large multi-panel Polaroid works entitled Rhapsody and Constellation were recently shown in Dreaming Now, a group show of installation art at the Rose Art Gallery of Brandeis University. This is Campos-Pons' first solo exhibition in New York since Spoken Softly with Mama was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in 1998. The title work Backyard Dreams, is a large-format color photograph of the artist with her son set against a painted backdrop of her grandmother in the garden, harks back to her Afro-Cuban roots. In contrast, the multi-panel Polaroids are abstract, floating images where the real and painted combine to become both timeless and illusionary. There is a dialogue between the literal and suggested, between memory, and acting in the present. Campos-Pons has always worked in many mediums; her earliest works are hybrids of paintings and reliefs. Each exhibition, performance and installation combines new and pre-existing works, adapting the ensemble in ways which give each project new meaning defined by site and context. In 2004 Campos-Pons was included in Dak'art- the Contemporary African Art Bienniale in Senegal with a project called Threads of Memory involving sculpture and video set in a former textile factory, and the previous year she created a sculptural installation in Montemarcello, Italy with moon forms and video, entitled Interiority (the same video which will be screened here.) Born in Montanzas in 1959, Campos-Pons was educated in Cuba at the National School of Art (1976-1979) and at ISA (Higher Institute of Art) (1980-1985). She was part of the first generation after the revolutionary artists group. She moved to North America in 1991, and now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with her husband and son. A major retrospective of her work entitled Everything is Separated by Water which will open in February 2007 is being organized by the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This exhibition will include forty works in many mediums borrowed from collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Norton Museum in Miami. MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS BACKYARD DREAMS DECEMBER 15, 2005- FEBRUARY 11, 2006 ENTRANCE: Primavera, 2005 ink and gouache on paper 20 sheets, 19 x 13” each overall size, 95 x 52” Interiority, 2003 dvd, 15 minutes sound by Neil Leonard edition of 5 MAIN GALLERY: EAST WALL: Backyard Dreams #5, 2005 chromogenic print 59 x 47 1/2” edition of 5 NORTH WALL: Maria Magdalena Thinking of Caravaggio's "Penitent Magdalen", 2005 orange gouache on paper and collage triptych, 8 3/4 x 6”, 13 3/4 x 10 3/4”, 8 3/4 x 6” frame size, 20 5/8 x 35 1/8” Ephyphyllum, 2004 ink and gouache on paper 12 x 10” frame size, 20 3/4 x 17 3/4” Rhapsody, 2005 Polacolor #6 Polaroid composition of 20 Polaroids each, 20 x 24” overall size, 120 x 131.50” WEST WALL: The Ecstasy, 2005 blue gouache on paper and collage triptych, 10 3/4 x 8 3/8”, 10 5/8 x 8 3/8”, 10 3/4 x 8 3/8” frame size, 17 3/4 x 37 3/4” SOUTH WALL Constellation, 2004 Polacolor #6 Polaroid composition of 16 Polaroids each, 20 x 24” overall size, 119 x 105” The artist would like to thank Julie Saul and staff, Howard Yezerski, Mark Elliot, Sylvia Morrison, Thomas Gustianas, Evelyn Ryzd, Jennifer Strauss and John Reuter. top For additional information contact the gallery back |
 Primavera, 2005  Backyard Dreams #5, 2005  Maria Magdalena Thinking of Caravaggio's "Penitent Magdalen"  Ephyphyllum, 2004  Rhapsody, 2005  The Ecstacy, 2005 (center, triptych)  Constellation, 2004 |