Marta María PÉREZ BRAVO (b. 1959, Havana) began her plastic arts studies at the Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, from which she graduated in 1984, specialising in painting. In 1995, she left her native Cuba and settled with her family in Monterrey (Mexico).
The photographic work she has done since the 80s, as well as her contributions to the world of video, a domain in which she started to work in 2011, represent, for her, a personal approximation to popular Cuban cults and concomitant universes, such as Spiritism. Her projects depart from exhaustive bibliographic documentation and direct contact with believers, whose practices, rituals and visions of the world she studies meticulously, before processing them and using them as material for the development of a work which is to be approached as one does a place of worship. Personal experience and the full integration of religious symbols and practices that surround her have given rise to a work whose poetics allow her to powerfully deal with themes such as the feminine, desire, maternity, pain, death, play, superstition and ritual. The artist's body often becomes the axis for composition, the agglutination of personal elements and emotions within the context of a work whose iconographic and narrative repertoires transcend the individual to open up onto a more vast horizon of reception.
Pérez Bravo's international career began in 1988, with individual exhibitions at the Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico); the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Peru) and the Museo de Arte Moderno (Venezuela). A year later, she represented Cuba at the III Bienal de La Habana and in 1990, she represented Cuba at the XXI Bienal de São Paulo (Brazil) and was part of the Art and Cuba Now project, staged at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (NY).
Her work has been exhibited at the IV Bienal de la Habana, V Istanbul Biennial (Turkey) and Kwangju Biennial (South Korea). She has exhibited at many museums, among them the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museo del Barrio (NY); Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia); Museum Fridericianum (Germany); Muesarnok Museum (Hungary); Alejandro Otero Museum of Visual Arts (Venezuela); Winnipeg Art Gallery and National Art Gallery (Ottawa, Canada); Menil Collection (Houston, Louisiana); Museum for Moderne Kunst (Denmark); Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); Wichita Art Museum (Kansas); Museum of Fine Arts (New México); Mead Museum of Art (Massachusetts); Miami Art Museum (Florida) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Pérez Bravo's works are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); Museum of Art (Pori, Finland); National Museum of Fine Arts (Cuba); Ludwig Forum (Germany); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain); Museo Español e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (Spain) and Norton Collection.
With regard to her contribution for RE-ACTION, Untitled, she fully subscribes to the words voiced by Antonio Molina Cuesta, who states that “the reference to Spiritism in the work of Pérez Bravo is elaborated as a metaphor of hospitality. Vision and visit are the climax of the experience of Spiritism. The revelation of what resides in darkness is the equivalent of a visit that is not expected, but fully sensed. Her videos emphasise the sense of offering with which she has always worked in the representation of her body.”(1)
Marta María Pérez Bravo lives and works in Monterrey (Mexico).
NOTES
(1) Cfr. Antonio Molina Cuesta, Un camino oscuro, 2013.
The photographic work she has done since the 80s, as well as her contributions to the world of video, a domain in which she started to work in 2011, represent, for her, a personal approximation to popular Cuban cults and concomitant universes, such as Spiritism. Her projects depart from exhaustive bibliographic documentation and direct contact with believers, whose practices, rituals and visions of the world she studies meticulously, before processing them and using them as material for the development of a work which is to be approached as one does a place of worship. Personal experience and the full integration of religious symbols and practices that surround her have given rise to a work whose poetics allow her to powerfully deal with themes such as the feminine, desire, maternity, pain, death, play, superstition and ritual. The artist's body often becomes the axis for composition, the agglutination of personal elements and emotions within the context of a work whose iconographic and narrative repertoires transcend the individual to open up onto a more vast horizon of reception.
Pérez Bravo's international career began in 1988, with individual exhibitions at the Museo Carrillo Gil (Mexico); the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Peru) and the Museo de Arte Moderno (Venezuela). A year later, she represented Cuba at the III Bienal de La Habana and in 1990, she represented Cuba at the XXI Bienal de São Paulo (Brazil) and was part of the Art and Cuba Now project, staged at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (NY).
Her work has been exhibited at the IV Bienal de la Habana, V Istanbul Biennial (Turkey) and Kwangju Biennial (South Korea). She has exhibited at many museums, among them the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museo del Barrio (NY); Museum of Contemporary Art (Australia); Museum Fridericianum (Germany); Muesarnok Museum (Hungary); Alejandro Otero Museum of Visual Arts (Venezuela); Winnipeg Art Gallery and National Art Gallery (Ottawa, Canada); Menil Collection (Houston, Louisiana); Museum for Moderne Kunst (Denmark); Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); Wichita Art Museum (Kansas); Museum of Fine Arts (New México); Mead Museum of Art (Massachusetts); Miami Art Museum (Florida) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Pérez Bravo's works are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, Texas); Museum of Art (Pori, Finland); National Museum of Fine Arts (Cuba); Ludwig Forum (Germany); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Spain); Museo Español e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo (Spain) and Norton Collection.
With regard to her contribution for RE-ACTION, Untitled, she fully subscribes to the words voiced by Antonio Molina Cuesta, who states that “the reference to Spiritism in the work of Pérez Bravo is elaborated as a metaphor of hospitality. Vision and visit are the climax of the experience of Spiritism. The revelation of what resides in darkness is the equivalent of a visit that is not expected, but fully sensed. Her videos emphasise the sense of offering with which she has always worked in the representation of her body.”(1)
Marta María Pérez Bravo lives and works in Monterrey (Mexico).
NOTES
(1) Cfr. Antonio Molina Cuesta, Un camino oscuro, 2013.