‘The horsemen of the children’s crusade are depicted in Cavalry. The flash of sabre may be the dull sheen of painted fibreglass, but the children lead the charge into battle. The charge, however, will not come to much, as it simply loops in its own pointless orbit, as warfare tends to do. The nobility and glory of battle has been downgraded to chipped plastic banalities and mirrored geegaws. These child soldiers striving for a linear tale of conquest find themselves instead circling back to the beginning, a dull repetition.

The journey of some of the children during migration sometimes is endless, even if they arrive safely at their destination. The carousel is the most poignant symbol to the absence of place, a machine that moves in circles with no real or familiar ground or destination. As immigrants, that absence of place is always present. Unable to return, real places become imaginary. Actual origins become legends. As an artist, I try to revisit and re-imagine it with my work.’ – María Berrío

About the artist

Based in Brooklyn, María Berrío grew up in Colombia. Her work has been shown as part of significant exhibitions at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; Nasher Museum of Art, USA; Prospect.4 Triennial, New Orleans; and the Museo del Barrio, New York. The artist’s first survey show María Berrío: Esperando mientras la noche florece (Waiting for the Night to Bloom) was on view at The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach from January until May 2021. Her work will feature in Women Painting Women, a thematic exhibition featuring 46 female artists who choose women as subject matter in their works, on view at The Modern, Fort Worth, 15 May–25 September 2022.

Berrío’s work is in permanent collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, USA; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, USA; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA, among others.