BIO
Photographer, and museologist she is a recipient of the Presidential Grant from the University of Puerto Rico to study art and architecture at the American University in Washington DC. In 1986 she graduated in Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, with concentration in Fine Arts. She has been fellowship by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Republic of Mexico to make a Master in the National Autonomous University of Mexico where she get the prize of Academic excellence by the University. In 2002, she has been awarded with the Prize for Best Contemporary Media facilities by the Association of International Art Critics, Chapter of Puerto Rico. She was recently selected to carry out a photographic project commissioned by the Department of Culture Monza in Italy, after making her project "Between Islands" in Tenerife, Canary Islands funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work is in the collection of the Art Museum of Puerto Rico, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of History, Art and Anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico, Cooperative Savings and Credit Arecibo in Puerto Rico; Collection of the Academy St. Carlos and Cultural Center in San Angelo Mexico and private collections.
Martha Mabel Peréz
EXHIBITIONS
Dream and Yearn
13.08.2008 to 26.09.2008
About "Dream and Yearn"
Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony since its discovery in 1493. During centuries the British Empire fought for the posession of the island, until in 1898 as a consequence of the Spanish-American War, the territory was surrendered to the United States of America. Five decades later in 1952, the island obtained the status of Commonwealth, a territory that is not incorporated to the United States but that has the same Constitution.
Many say that because Puerto Ricans transited more than 400 years of history under the colonial system, they have achieved a historic deed in their attempt to adapt to this contradictory reality, taking hold of the duality or cultural fragmentation to which they were exposed. By discovering the complexity of these migratory processes: the dichotomy of speaking Spanish in a English-speaking country and feeling Latin American while posessing an American passport; the artist builds a multiple and fragmentary identity that replaces the inutility of attempting to define in a linear manner. In this way the exhibition "Dream and Yearn"is composed of the photographic work "Between Islands: Islander Topics" and a select series of videos: "The Reception" (2006), "The Arrival" (2006), "The Tour" (2006), "Exam for American Citizenship" (2007) and "Fully Bilingual" (2005-2008). The works present the migratory movements of the Canary Islanders, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans, where the immigrants yearn for the past and dream with the new life that the American dream promises. In documenting the trip in which her father returns to the Canary Islands, the artist is narrating their story -the relocated immigrants in new territories- but, while doing so, refers to us in an ineludible manner. She herself and those from her generation appropriate and resignify a culture with one foot on each coast of the Caribbean Sea- finally articulating the you (us) which, as Latin Americans who are in a world of permeable frontiers and global implications share many of these processes behind plural and polysemic identities.
Alicia Candiani
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dream & Yearn presents the work realized by the Puerto Rican photographer Marta Mabel Peréz, on successive migratory movements that has lived Puerto Rico and how it has been transformed. The project consists on a photographic work "Between Islands: Islanders affairs" and a select series of videos: "The reception" (2006), "The Arrival" (2006), "The tour" (2006), "Consideration for the American citizenship"(2007) and "Fully Billingual"(2005-2008). The videos show the migratory movements Canaries, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans where migrants yearn the past and dream with a new life that promises the American dream.
Peréz highlighted in the medium of photography and her work deals both migratory processes of Puerto Ricans as situations involving Puerto Rican society. Currently she lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she is Manager of the assistance programme (PRO) at the Art Museum of Puerto Rico.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Dream & Yearn presents the work realized by the Puerto Rican photographer Marta Mabel Peréz, on successive migratory movements that has lived Puerto Rico and how it has been transformed. The project consists on a photographic work "Between Islands: Islanders affairs" and a select series of videos: "The reception" (2006), "The Arrival" (2006), "The tour" (2006), "Consideration for the American citizenship"(2007) and "Fully Billingual"(2005-2008). The videos show the migratory movements Canaries, Dominicans and Puerto Ricans where migrants yearn the past and dream with a new life that promises the American dream.
Peréz highlighted in the medium of photography and her work deals both migratory processes of Puerto Ricans as situations involving Puerto Rican society. Currently she lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she is Manager of the assistance programme (PRO) at the Art Museum of Puerto Rico.