In Maria Berrio’s first survey (2 January–9 May 2021) of works at the Norton Museum of Art, the museum’s Director of Curatorial Affairs, Cheryl Brutyan explores with her issues of immigration and femininity central to her works.

Maria Berrio’s idea of representation is simple. She creates lush landscapes, fleeting domestic interior scenes of daily life in Colombia and America. Yet, behind a spell of magical realism she captivates and prompts the viewer to reflect around her own path, a testimony to immigration, strength and hope around the life of an independent woman in America.

“Whatever I am going through comes out in my works. They allude to a magical realism, in that there is a sense of fantasy injected to my own reality,” Berrio said.

To portray jewel-like landscapes and persona which allude to the dazzling patterns of celebrated painter Gustav Klimt , Maria Berrio uses patterns from unique papers sourced from South America and Asia, especially Japan.

“Painting was always very hard for me. And when I discovered the medium of collage using Japanese paper I discovered the incredible freedom: a world of possibilities to create expansive rich visual imageries,” Berrio said.

“The use of paper collage is unusual and cannot be experienced until you see it in person. There is no inch of the canvas that is left uncovered. The surface of each work is very dense with patterning. Yet through the chaos Maria’s composition is perfectly controlled,” Brutyan said.

Maria is native to Bogotá, Colombia, (born, 1982) and traveled as a young adult with her family to America to escape the country’s unstable political climate. Berrío then studied to be an artist, first completing her BFA in 2004 at the Parsons School of Design followed by an MFA in 2007 from the School of Visual Arts.

Her landscapes quickly became dominated by female figures, which she says voice the ideals of femininity. Paintings she says are an act of faith, and so express her feelings, thoughts and convictions.

“Through my works I want to portray the women’s courage, strength vulnerability and compassion,” Berrio said.

“The gaze is often directed at the viewer. To give these women that kind of strength as in they are almost fearless,” Brutyan said.

The dragon blood tree is also a repeated symbol in her body of works. Endemic to an island off the coast of Yemen, the tree adapted over thousands of years to the island’s desert-like climate and rocky soil, inhospitable to other sources of life.

A powerful symbol of force and resilience, the dragon blood tree speaks to the enduring struggle immigrants face. The trees’ unusual roots which are directed towards the sky is a symbol of hope to all immigrants.

“As an immigrant I found the dragon blood tree to be a beautiful imagery. The seeds of plants are carried by the wind. The destiny of an immigrant like me is beyond our control, carried by the wind. And we have the power to put down roots wherever we go, even in the sky,” Maria Berrio concludes.

Maria Berrio is represented by Victoria Miro and Kohn Gallery. Berrío’s work is in permanent collections such as Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York, NY; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Weatherspoon Museum of Art at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.