S1E10: Maria Martinez-Canas

Cuban-born photo-based artist, María Martínez-Cañas, first came to the US at the tender age of three months with her parents, and four years later, in 1964, they relocated to Puerto Rico. Maria recalls her earliest fascination for photography as an eight year old when she started working with a Polaroid Swinger camera that her parents gave her. Her mother also gave her an old Twin-Lens Rolleiflex that she brought out of Cuba, which Maria still has today. It wasn’t long before she asked her parents for a darkroom in the house, and thus began her passion for the process of creating images and processing film. Maria has been called a precocious photographer with an insatiable appetite to explore the art of photography and it wasn’t long before her talent became apparent when she had her first exhibition in 1977 at the age of seventeen. Between 1978 and 1982 she attended the Philadelphia College of Art, where she studied with the likes of Joan Redmond, Ron Walker, Eileen Berger, and Arno Rafael Minkkinen. In 1985, Maria received a Fulbright Hays Grant, which enabled her to travel to Spain to study and where she culled archival sources, such as historical maps and documents, which inspired her to create negatives based on Cuban maps. She returned to the United States in 1986 where she settled in Miami. Two important series from the 1990s—Totems and Quince Sellos Cubanos (Fifteen Cuban Stamps)—epitomize her interest in a photomontage aesthetic and use of imagery drawn from her Caribbean childhood. Maria is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Photography Fellowship (2016), a National Endowment for the Arts grant (1988) and a Civitella Ranieri Foundation fellowship (2014) in Umbertide, Italy. Her photographs are in many private and public collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; American Art Museum, Smithsonian Institution; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; and the Museum of Modern Art and International Center of Photography in New York. She is currently working on a project that involves the work of early 20th century German photographer August Sander. When she is not in her studio, Maria enjoys deep sea diving for which she is a certified diver, and watching her favorite basketball team, the Miami Heat. She says: “I think that visually, when you look at a work of art, be it sculpture, be it painting, be it photograph, whatever it is, you as a person, you’re bringing yourself, who you are, what we call the baggage, you bring your iconography, you bring your identity, you bring your experiences as a person … with your eyes you’re looking at an art work but with your head and with your heart; two very different things, the brain and the heart, but when they are communicating with each other, it’s a very interesting dialogue. You don’t have to know about art, you just have to relate to it.” Maria’s Favorite Female Artists: Eva HesseKiki Smith Barbara Blondeau Barbara Crane Louise Bourgeois Doris Salcedo GegoAmelia Pelaéz Zilia Sánchez Jess T Dugan Maria’s Playlist: Si*SéFederico AubeleMazzy StarNatasha St-PierSilvio RodriguezColdplaySimply RedSarah McLachlanLisseEeGal CostaMaria BethaniaNorah JonesOmara PortuondoShawn ColvinFrancis Cabrel MandalayLuz CasalCesaria Evora BebeEdnita Nazario https://mariamartinez-canas.com/ Instagram: @mphotogram Host: Chris StaffordProduced by Hollowell Studios@theaartpodcastEmail: [email protected] a supporter of this podcast: