One of the most significant artists to emerge from post-Revolutionary Cuba, María Magdalena Campos-Pons created a garden for Montalvo’s grounds with participation from the community. Taking inspiration from an aerial photograph of a Soviet medium-range ballistic missile installation taken by a US Air force plane during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, this garden is part peace memorial and part living sketch. Campos-Pons is interested in the uneasy juxtaposition of the visual beauty of the photograph upon which she based her garden plan—which looks like blooming flowers set inside a hexagram shape--and the horror and destructive capability that the image belies. Imole means "earth" in the Yoruba language. The garden was planted with the help of community participants on Sunday, July 15 and is dedicated to the life and work of Kanishka Raja and to peace, healing, a world of tolerance and respect, and love.
The work was created with the participation of Valerie Archer Wainwright, Emmalyn Aviet, Kelsie de la Ossa, Rhiannon Janeschild, Caroline Lawson, Kyle Martin, Dan North, Ann Northrup, Isaiah Plaza, Danya Wang, and Chris Yamashita.
Watch the making of María Magdalena Campos-Pons' peace garden, Imole Blue II (Field of Memories), from videographer Brandon Hanson below.
The work was created with the participation of Valerie Archer Wainwright, Emmalyn Aviet, Kelsie de la Ossa, Rhiannon Janeschild, Caroline Lawson, Kyle Martin, Dan North, Ann Northrup, Isaiah Plaza, Danya Wang, and Chris Yamashita.
Watch the making of María Magdalena Campos-Pons' peace garden, Imole Blue II (Field of Memories), from videographer Brandon Hanson below.
Image Gallery
Meet the Artist
MARIA MAGDALENA CAMPOS-PONS
María Magdalena Campos-Pons is one of the most significant artists to emerge from post-Revolutionary Cuba. Her diverse practice encompasses painting, mixed media installation, performance, video and photography. Her work often collapses time periods, geographical space, personal and collective history and memory to render visible the lives and experience of Afro-Cuban diaspora communities, and offer new ways of thinking about the complexities of cultural identity. Campos-Pons’s work is held in permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among many others. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently a fellowship from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2016 and the 2013 Jane Fortune Outstanding Women Visiting Artist Lecture.
María Magdalena Campos-Pons is one of the most significant artists to emerge from post-Revolutionary Cuba. Her diverse practice encompasses painting, mixed media installation, performance, video and photography. Her work often collapses time periods, geographical space, personal and collective history and memory to render visible the lives and experience of Afro-Cuban diaspora communities, and offer new ways of thinking about the complexities of cultural identity. Campos-Pons’s work is held in permanent collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Fogg Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among many others. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently a fellowship from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2016 and the 2013 Jane Fortune Outstanding Women Visiting Artist Lecture.
Partners and Sponsors
Imole Blue II was commissioned by the Lucas Artists Program at Montalvo Arts Center (2018) and made possible through the generous support of the following program partners, exhibition sponsors, and Friends of the Lucas Artists Program:
Anonymous • Philip & Jennifer DiNapoli • William and Flora Hewlett Foundation • Wanda Kownacki • Sally & Don Lucas • George & Judy Marcus Family Foundation • National Endowment for the Arts • David and Lucile Packard Foundation • Charmaine & Dan Warmenhoven
Press Release
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PRESS RELEASE
Art on the Grounds 2018: We the People Montalvo Arts Center kicks off its annual Art on the Grounds exhibition this summer with an opening art festival titled We the People. For 2018, the Art on the Grounds installations will include three newly-commissioned works by Lucas Artists Fellows: an innovative sound walk, a communally planted peace garden, and a large-scale art installation. Read More >> |
Watch and Listen
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VIDEO
Who is We Video Series Click here to watch videos by LAP Fellows, Guest Artists and others as they explore the question: Who is We to you? Watch More >> |
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