Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and currently lives and works in Boston. Her practice encompasses a variety of media including video, performance and sculpture (as seen in the above photograph). Campos-Pons is known for work that explores subjects of identity and gender politics.  

The artist’s studio looks quite clean and simple in this photo, though we can’t see a great deal of it. I like the way Campos-Pons has her sculptures arranged on the floor. It looks as though she’s walking through a small forest. The works shown here are part of Campos-Pons more recent forays into artwork that looks at her own ancestral background, and takes on a more minimal, monolithic presence than previous abstract paintings.

I find that the minimal surroundings of the artist’s studio are reflected in the simple, smooth forms of the sculptures. The sculptures themselves are reminiscent of both contemporary sculptures by the likes of Rand Hardy, and of mid-20th century works such as those by Constantin Brancusi.

Campos-Pons also works frequently in performance and video, and as such many of her works are site-specific.  She currently teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and has been known to collaborate with her husband, composer and musician Neil Leonard.

[image source]