IBA Stage: 15th Sharjah Biennial – Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

Art Professor Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons in her studio office and outside Ingram Fine Arts Center. (John Russell/Vanderbilt University)

IBA Stage: 15th Sharjah Biennial
March 8th, 2023 (Wednesday)
3:30pm (Sharjah/GMT+4)

Last but not least of our final panelist for the IBA Stage about Sharjah Biennial 15 to join us at the Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts during the upcoming March Meeting is Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons.

An old acquaintance of IBA and always welcomed guest for her knowledgable insights and her passion. Campos-Pons, in one of the first IBA Conversations events had presented her project in Matanzas, Cuba – Rios intermitentes, initiated as an event of the Havana Biennale and by now growing into a fully independent biennial to underline the importance of Matanzas in the history of Cuba and the region.

She has since participated in many of our events and discussions making her one of the most passionate discussion partners on biennials we have experienced,. We are extremely happy to have her with us and look forward to the discussion her interventions will generate during the panel!

María Magdalena Campos-Pons was born in in 1959 in the province of Matanzas, in the town of La Vega, Cuba. She grew up on a sugar plantation in a family with Nigerian, Hispanic and Chinese roots. Her Nigerian ancestors were brought to Cuba and enslaved in the 19th century. The family pass on traditions, rituals, and beliefs. Her polyglot heritage profoundly influences Campos-Pons’ artistic practice, which combines diverse media including photography, performance, painting, sculpture, film, and video. Her work is autobiographical, investigating themes of history, memory, gender and religion and how they inform identity. Through deeply poetic and haunting imagery, Campos-Pons evokes stories of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, indigo, and sugar plantations, Catholic and Santeria religious practices, and revolutionary uprisings.

In the late 1980s, Campos-Pons taught at the prestigious Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana and gained an international reputation as an exponent of the New Cuban Art movement that arose in opposition to Communist repression on the island. In 1991, she emigrated to Boston, where she taught at SMFA. Campos-Pons in 2004 co-founded a Boston art space, GASP, a gallery that encouraged artistic exchanges and collaborations in order to understand the contemporary cultural landscape. In 2007, she was featured in a major solo exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Everything Is Separated by Water: María Magdalena Campos-Pons. She has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the National Gallery of Canada, among other distinguished institutions.  She has presented over 30 solo performances commissioned by institutions including the Guggenheim and The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She has participated in the Venice Biennale, the Dakar Biennale, Johannesburg Biennial, Documenta14, the Guangzhou Triennial and is included in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA and Prospect.4 Triennial

Campos-Pons’ works are in over 30 museum collections including the Smithsonian Institution, The Whitney, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Perez Art Museum, Miami and the Fogg Art Museum.”

In October 2017 she received the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Fine Arts at Vanderbilt University Nashville TN same year Monserrate College of Art awarded Campos-Pons a Dr Honoris Causa. In 2018 she launched EADJ Engine for Art Democracy and Justice at Vanderbilt University. Campos-Pons project intermittent Rivers in Matanzas 2019 was highlighted as one of best curatorial events in 2019. She lives in Nashville Tennessee.

While this event will take place in front of a live audience at the Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts, we encourage you to participate remotely through our Zoom event where you’ll be able to interact with us and the panelists as in all IBA Stage events so far. As always, all our IBA Stage events will be live-streamed through our social media and YouTube channels.

Click here to register for the next session of IBA Stage.

Click here for a full schedule of March Meeting 2023.

This very special event is made possible through the partnership of Sharjah Art Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art and IBA in occasion of March Meeting 23 which will take place in Sharjah between Tuesday 7th and Saturday 11th of March 2023.