MARÍA FRAGOSOI believe that focusing on the intimacy of our lives matters.Through the depiction of figures and their interactions betweenthem, intimacy turns into a moment of transcendence. Thefigures are simultaneously observing themselves and trying toreach to the other; mirroring each other while looking for anall-consuming relationship. Juxtapositions between beautyand the uncanny are an invitation to question ourselves andcomplicate (literally, wringing and twisting) what we understandas identity. Introducing confusion in social dynamics is how I tryto unsettle their regularity, distort their traditional form. I like torepresent coupling, eating, touching; actions that epitomize theintrinsic longing for human connection. This emphasis on pluralityand heterogeneity in my paintings is meant to posit challenge onthe idea of an unequivocal, oversimplified Latin American identity.When I started living and working in America for the first time,I was struck by a whole new context. My practice was markedby the influence of other artists who engaged with issues ofrace, culture, and sexuality in the attempt to transgress existingdelimitations of identities. I comprehended, for example, howextremely diverse, mutable, and protean Latinx experiences are.It must also be said that my arrival in America coincided withdeep sociopolitical changes in this country, which was crucial tomy experience. I arrived to Baltimore in 2015 after the protestsover Freddie Gray’s death; that same year I started painting.Two years later, Trump’s presidency started. The question oflimits became tangible with all the violence that has alwaysaccompanied the urge to draw clear and crisp borders betweencountries, identities, and ultimately families. During this period,a very derogatory narrative started spreading around LatinAmerican identity. Under these circumstances, raising one’s voiceis a necessity to oppose the implementation of rigid colonial,42María, Skowhegan, 2019
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