‘This work is a reflection on children’s memories and imagined futures. It depicts an abandoned half-blue house whose stateliness and symmetries are threatened by a torrent of colourful leaves and plants. Nature here is a messy vibrancy, at odds with the straight lines of human construction. But such are memories themselves, things often built and pieced together out of a whirl of fading perceptions and half-remembrances. Upon further examination, our childhood memories rarely resemble the realities lived. A child would create a nearly magical kingdom of memory or expectations, a fragile empire ready to burst to pieces if cast against reality.’ – 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.