María Magdalena Campos-Pons

María Magdalena Campos-Pons (born July 22, 1959) is a Cuban-born artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. Campos-Pons works primarily in photography, performance, audiovisual media, and sculpture. She is considered a "key figure" among Cuban artists who found their voice in a post-revolutionary Cuba. Her art deals with themes of Cuban culture, gender and sexuality, multicultural identity (Cuban, Chinese, and Nigerian) as well as interracial family (Cuban-American), and religion/spirituality (in particular, Roman Catholicism and Santería).

Early life and education Campos-Pons was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1959 and grew up in a sugar plantation town called La Vega, Calimete in Cuba. Her paternal great-grandparents were Yoruba. She also has Chinese and Hispanic heritage. Her African ancestors, who were brought over by sugar plantation owners in the late 19th century, passed down traditions from Africa that influenced and became part of Campos-Pons's art. The African side of her family worked as slaves on sugar plantations and as domestic servants. The Chinese side of her family worked as indentured servants in sugar mills.

When she was young, Campos-Pons relates that during a trip to the National Cuban Museum of Fine Art, she distinctly felt that black Cubans were conspicuously missing from the art. She did not feel as though black Cubans were equally represented.

Campos-Pons conducted her post graduate studies at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1988. Since 2017, she has lived in Nashville, Tennessee. In the late 1980s, her art work gained "international recognition" with her abstract paintings dealing with female sexuality. The movement was less focused on technical skill and more on creating an art that was genuinely Cuban. As there was no larger feminist movement in Cuba, it was only through the expression of art through artists like Campos-Pon and others that feminism was kept in the spotlight and popular consciousness. Campos-Pons uses Santería as a theme in her art to identify her Nigerian ancestry and Cuban heritage. She explores the rituals and symbols of Santería in some of her work from this time period. Her work investigates "a felt history," through the intersection of "non-spoken narratives" and "resilient culture". She started using large-format photographs which were often arranged into diptychs, triptychs or other configurations. These works are reminiscent of works by Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems. Campos-Pons says: "Of merging ideas, merging of ethnicities, merging of traditions... I am as much black, Cuban, woman, Chinese. I am this tapestry of all of that, and the responses to that could be very complicated and could include even anguish and pain." Other ideas that her work explores includes exile, immigration, memory and Cuba itself. Campos-Pons's work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Fogg Art Museum.

Campos-Pons teaches at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts. In 2020, and as a result of the nationwide social unrest, she launched "Engine for Art, Democracy and Justice", which is defined as a Vanderbilt University "trans-institutional series of virtual conversations and artistic collaborations focused on healing at a time of significant social unrest."

Her diptych photograph, The House was included in the 2022 exhibition Afro-Atlantic Histories at the National Gallery of Art.

Collaboration with Neil Leonard Between 1988 and 2018, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and Neil Leonard created thirty-eight audio visual works together. By the time they met in 1988, Leonard had created sound for video installations and performances by Tony Oursler, Constance De Jong and Sam Durant. After meeting Leonard, sound became increasingly important in Campos-Pons's practice. She collaborated with Leonard to incorporate spoken word, music and field recordings into the work, and expand her practice to include time-based presentation. From 2010-2017, Campos-Pons created their most mature collaborations, balancing a sonic/visual content and ideas, and integrating the audio sources into sculptural components. Musicians were located in the main atrium, stairwell and galleries and created a series of locations with unique sonic signatures that Campos-Pons wandered thought during the performance. The work comprises 100 bird cages, 55 video players and 18 audio speakers. "Letter of the Year" addresses issues of home, migration, the necessity of finding and redefining the meaning of permanency and locality. Letter of the Year plays with two key sounds in Cuba today. The installation features an immersive quadrophonic soundtrack by Neil Leonard. The work was purchased by the National Museum of Canada, Ottawa. The One That Carried Fire consists of organic lines and shapes of flowers painted in bright reds and pink, alluding to female reproductive organs.

Public collections (selection) Their work is included in the collection of several public institutions globally, including: Pérez Art Museum Miami Tufts University Art Galleries Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Modern Art, New York Smithsonian Institution Whitney Museum of American Art Art Institute of Chicago National Gallery of Canada Victoria and Albert Museum Fogg Art Museum, at Harvard University

Awards Campos-Pons has received many awards and recognitions, including the "Mention of Honor", in 1986 in the XVIIIème Festival International de la Peinture, Château Musée, Cagnes Sur Mer, France. In 1990 Painting Fellowship, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Alberta, Canada; in 1992 Foreign Visiting Artist Grant, Media Arts, Canada Council, Canada; in 1994 Bunting Fellowship, Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute, Radcliffe Research and Study Center, Cambridge, MA; and in 1995 Art Reach 95 Award, National Congress of Art & Design, Salt Lake City, Utah.

2023: MacArthur Fellow 2021: $50,000 Pérez Prize 2018: $25,000 Anonymous Was a Woman Award 2012: Woman of Color Award Boston, MA 2011: Woman of Courage Boston MA 2011: Hispanic Alianza Award Nashville TN 2009: The Jorge Hernandez Leadership in the Arts Award, MA 2007: Rappaport Prize MA 1997: The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, NY 1995: Art Reach 95 Award, National Congress of Art & Design, Salt Lake City, UT 1995: Bunting Fellowship, Radcliffe College at Harvard, Cambridge, MA 1995: New England Foundation for the Arts, Regional Fellowship, MA US 1992-1991: Foreign Visiting Artist Grant, Media Arts, Canada Council Painting 1992-1991: Fellowship, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada 1990: Painting Fellowship, The Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada 1989: Medal of Honor, City of Guanabacoa, Cuba 1985: Symposium of Scientific Studies, Research Award, Higher Institute of Art, Havana, Cuba

Solo exhibitions 2023: María Magdalena Campos-Pons: Behold, Brooklyn Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum and Frist Art Museum 2021: The Rise of the Butterflies, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, Germany 2021: Sea and Self, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin 2020: New Viewings #25 Curated by Octavio Zaya, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin, Germany 2020: In The Garden, curated by Francesca Pasini, Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio, Milan, Italy. 2019: Sea and Self, The Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities, Rutgers University, New Brunswick 2018: Like the lonely traveller: Video Works by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Visual Arts Center, The University of Texas at Austin 2018: Notes on Sugar: Works by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Christian Green Gallery, The University of Texas at Austin 2017: Matanzas Sound Map, documenta 14, Athens (co-commnission with Neil Leonard) 2017: Bar Matanzas, documenta14, Kassel (co-commnission with Neil Leonard) 2013: Water, WIZARD GALLERY, Milan 2011–2012: Journeys & Mama/Reciprocal Energy, First Center for Visual Arts (performance with Neil Leonard), Nashville 2010: Sugar, Smith College Museum of Art 2007: Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons: Everything Is Separated by Water, Bass Museum, Miami and Indianapolis Museum of Art (in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 2006: I Am Here, curated by Sergio Risaliti, Galleria Pack (now Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio), Milan, Italy (performance in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 2005: Back Yard, Dreams, Julie Saul Gallery, New York 2005: New Work, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami 2004: Threads of Memory, Dak'Art, the Biennial of Contemporary African Art, 6th edition (in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 2004: Elevata, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston 2004: Talking Pictures, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami 2004: Something New, Something Old, Schneider Gallery, Chicago 2003: Interiority or Hill Sided Moon, La Marrana, Montemarcello, Italy (in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 2003: One Thousand Ways to Say Goodbye, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway, (in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 2002–2003: María Magdalena Campos-Pons, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks 2002: M.M. Campos-Pons, Galleria Pack (now Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio), Milan, Italy 2001: Nesting, Schneider Gallery, Chicago 2000: Nesting, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston 1998: Unfolding Desires, Hallwalls, Buffalo 1998: Spoken Softly with Mama, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,(in collaboration with Neil Leonard) 1998: History of People... Part I, "A Town Portrait," Lehman College, NJ 1998: M.M. Campos-Pons, Sustenance, Martha Schneider Gallery, Chicago 1997: Abridor de Caminos, Martha Schneider Gallery, Chicago 1997: M.M. Campos-Pons, New Work, Ambrosino Gallery, Coral Gables 1997: When I am not Here. Estoy Alla, The Caribbean Cultural Center, New York 1996: M.M. Campos-Pons, New Work, Martha Schneider Gallery, Chicago 1994: Recent Work, Miami Dade Community College Gallery, Miami 1994: History of People Who Were Not Heroes, Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 1993: Let me Tell You, INTAR, Latin American Gallery, New York 1993: Racially Inscribed Body, Akin Gallery, Boston 1992: Como el Cuerpo de un Hombre es un Arbol ... / ... How the Body of a Person is a Tree ..., Gallery La Centrale/Powerhouse, Montreal, Canada 1991: A Woman at the border/Una Mujer en la Frontera, SOHO 20 Gallery, New York 1991: Amuletos/Amulets, Burnaby Art Gallery, B.C., Canada 1990: A Woman at the Border/Una Mujer en la Frontera, Presentation Room JPL Building, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada 1989: Isla/Island, Castillo de la Fuerza/Castle of Royal Force, Havana, Cuba 1988: Erotic Garden or Some Annotations on Hypocrisy/Jardin Erotico, Kennedy Building Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston 1985: Acoplamientos/Coupling, Gallery L, Havana, Cuba

Commissions On April 9, 2026, the Obama Foundation announced that it had commissioned Campos-Pons to create a work for the Obama Presidential Center. Campos-Pons’s work Still Holding the Scent of Flowers, will be a mixed-media installation of the White House Rose Garden.