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María Martínez-Cañas

Born Havana, Cuba, 1960

María Martínez-Cañas seems to have been born with a camera: at eight years old she was working with a Polaroid Swinger and then a Twin-Lens Rolleiflex that her mother brought from Cuba. Martínez-Cañas was raised in Puerto Rico, where her love of photography and art has culminated in awards and exhibitions. As an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art and in graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago, Martínez-Cañas embraced experimental photography, pushing beyond the documentary use of the medium to a poetic territory that combines drawing, collage, and photomontage. Maps, family photographs, and art historical images recur in her work as visual markers documenting and reinventing the past.

The series Duplicity as Identity consists of nine images in which the artist overlays a photograph of herself onto one of her father, posed identically and taken at approximately the same age. Martínez-Cañas then creates incremental mixes of her and her father that go from 10 percent of his image over 90 percent of hers all the way to 10 percent of hers over 90 percent of his, confounding their identities into one.

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María Martínez-Cañas

Nacida en la Habana, Cuba

María Martínez-Cañas parece haber nacido con una cámara: a los ocho años ya estaba trabajando con una Polaroid Swinger y luego con una Rolleiflex Doble Lente que su madre le trajo de Cuba. Martínez-Cañas creció en Puerto Rico, donde su amor por la fotografía y el arte culminó en premios y exposiciones. Como estudiante de bachillerato en Philadelphia College of Art y estudiante de maestría en el Art Institute of Chicago, Martínez-Cañas abrazó la fotografía experimental, rebasando las cualidades documentales del medio hasta llegar a un territorio poético que combina el dibujo, el collage y el fotomontaje. Los mapas, las fotografías familiares e imágenes históricas de arte recurren en su obra como referentes visuales para documentar y reinventar el pasado.

La serie Identidad dúplice consta de nueve imágenes en las que la artista superpone una fotografía de sí misma sobre otra de su padre en la misma pose, tomada aproximadamente a la misma edad. Martínez-Cañas luego crea mezclas digitales de ella y su padre en escalas de 10 al 90 por ciento, confundiendo sus identidades en una.

María Martínez-Cañas

Born Havana, Cuba, 1960

María Martínez-Cañas seems to have been born with a camera: at eight years old she was working with a Polaroid Swinger and then a Twin-Lens Rolleiflex that her mother brought from Cuba. Martínez-Cañas was raised in Puerto Rico, where her love of photography and art has culminated in awards and exhibitions. As an undergraduate at the Philadelphia College of Art and in graduate school at the Art Institute of Chicago, Martínez-Cañas embraced experimental photography, pushing beyond the documentary use of the medium to a poetic territory that combines drawing, collage, and photomontage. Maps, family photographs, and art historical images recur in her work as visual markers documenting and reinventing the past.

The series Duplicity as Identity consists of nine images in which the artist overlays a photograph of herself onto one of her father, posed identically and taken at approximately the same age. Martínez-Cañas then creates incremental mixes of her and her father that go from 10 percent of his image over 90 percent of hers all the way to 10 percent of hers over 90 percent of his, confounding their identities into one.


María Martínez-Cañas

Nacida en la Habana, Cuba

María Martínez-Cañas parece haber nacido con una cámara: a los ocho años ya estaba trabajando con una Polaroid Swinger y luego con una Rolleiflex Doble Lente que su madre le trajo de Cuba. Martínez-Cañas creció en Puerto Rico, donde su amor por la fotografía y el arte culminó en premios y exposiciones. Como estudiante de bachillerato en Philadelphia College of Art y estudiante de maestría en el Art Institute of Chicago, Martínez-Cañas abrazó la fotografía experimental, rebasando las cualidades documentales del medio hasta llegar a un territorio poético que combina el dibujo, el collage y el fotomontaje. Los mapas, las fotografías familiares e imágenes históricas de arte recurren en su obra como referentes visuales para documentar y reinventar el pasado.

La serie Identidad dúplice consta de nueve imágenes en las que la artista superpone una fotografía de sí misma sobre otra de su padre en la misma pose, tomada aproximadamente a la misma edad. Martínez-Cañas luego crea mezclas digitales de ella y su padre en escalas de 10 al 90 por ciento, confundiendo sus identidades en una.

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Duplicity as Identity: 10%
Archival pigment print on canvas, mounted on aluminum, 2008–9
Courtesy Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida and Julie Saul Gallery, New York City
© María Martínez-Cañas
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Cick for enlargement

Duplicity as Identity: 50%
Archival pigment print on canvas, mounted on aluminum, 2008–9
Cricket Taplin Collection
© María Martínez-Cañas
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Cick for enlargement

Duplicity as Identity: 90%
Archival pigment print on canvas, mounted on aluminum, 2008–9
Courtesy of Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida, and Julie Saul Gallery, New York City
© María Martínez-Cañas
View image →

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

August 22, 2014 through April 12, 2015

Americas Society, New York City

June 10, 2015 through October 18, 2015

National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico

November 6, 2015 through March 27, 2016.