Be my Voice
maría moreno – 2024
Adapting to a new life is never easy. As an immigrant you have to face many challenges, to adapt to all that is new – your surroundings, the culture, learning to speak a new language… Knowing that my homeland, Venezuela, and its people were immersed in an unimaginable political and socio-economic crisis made my transition especially difficult. While I enjoyed unbelievable freedom, my country was being torn apart. As an artist, painting became not only my refuge but a way to communicate when words failed.
Be my Voice, my first solo exhibition, was presented at the Parrott Gallery in Belleville in July 2018. It is a collection of around 35 paintings created between 2017 and 2018, with the intent to expose how my beautiful country, Venezuela, was while being devastated by a profound political turmoil.
In this exhibition, a selection of pieces from my 2018 exhibition will be presented, along with new pieces that portray the evolution of my feelings.
With some ups and downs in the last decade, Venezuela is still engulfed in a profound political and economic crisis. The exodus of Venezuelans – some seven million people of all ages who have left the country since 2014 – constitutes the largest migration crisis in Latin American history. Stories of desperation, sadness and uncertainty are behind these statistics.
Be my Voice is a reflection of my profane despair, frustration and fear of the future. It is also a hope that the beauty will one day shine on this wonderful country and their people again!
Images courtesy of the artist.
About the Artist
maría moreno
maría moreno is an award-winning Venezuelan-Canadian abstract painter whose unique style has been defined by patience, trust, persistence, neither guided nor deterred by tradition or social convention.
Working mainly in acrylics, maría’s paintings are rich with texture, sharp in contrast, traversing from the political to the natural and beyond. Born in The Canary Islands and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, the artist’s choices in design and colour are intrinsically linked to the countries of her youth. As a result, her paintings are visceral and boundless – a passionate embodiment of her own personal experiences.
maría has participated in solo and group exhibitions at both national and international levels, as well as in regional art fairs. Her paintings are held in private and corporate collections in Canada, USA and South America.