"We are not just one thing, we are a prism of culture. My work celebrates this diversity—not explicitly, but with fantasy—in an attempt to create a narrative that is as complicated and elusive as reality."
Maria Berrio’s commanding The Lovers 4 emblematizes the artist’s groundbreaking oeuvre through a synthesis of her most iconic motifs. Featuring a shamanic female figure, kaleidoscopic parrot, ornate fabric and floral patterning, the present work is a highly embellished, individualized portrait of reflection and reclamation. Rooted in childhood memories of Colombia and the artist’s experience of migration, as well as a fascination with the relationship between humans and their environment, The Lovers 4 is charged with a history that is as personal as it is universal, and as timely as it is timeless. Executed in Berrio’s idiosyncratic paper collage style, The Lovers 4 is a lush, delicate and intimately conceptualized and crafted portrait of power and of unity. A testament to its dazzling communicativity, The Lovers 4 bears striking resemblance to Berrio’s 2015 painting of the same series entitled The Lovers, which served as a poster image for Praxis Gallery’s The Harmony of the Spheres exhibition in 2015.
Featuring a celestial young woman grasping a large, prismatic parrot to her chest, The Lovers 4 intertwines its two subjects by way of intricate pattern, bright pigment and rich texture. While her skin is otherworldly in its near translucence, the young woman’s body is in contrast adorned with a brightly ornamented dress and glamorous headpiece. Hair pulled back, framed with a cascade of draped beads and fine florals, the subject is draped in sand colored lace and powder blue latticework which meet rouge embroidery in her laboriously crafted dress. Her hands, the backs of which are each adorned with floral tattoos, hold the parrot, whose feathers are a spectral array of alloy, peach, burgundy, turquoise and lemon. Textured merlot and berry red compose the deep background, the ambiguity of which enhances the floating ethereality of the painting’s subject.
Though illustrative of a distinctly contemporary magical realism, The Lovers 4 embodies many influences, from the Surrealism of Remedios Varos and Frida Kahlo to Viennese Successionist works by the likes of Gustav Klimt and the contemporary contributions of Kiki Smith and Toyin Ojih Odutola. These artists sit alongside South American writers and oral histories in Berrio’s trove of artistic inspiration. Visually weaving together multiple histories, The Lovers 4 revitalizes its source material through the form of a shamanic young woman and her bird, who together exquisitely encapsulate triumph, freedom and transcendence.
The floral detailing and feathered subject together speak to the present work’s encapsulation of what lies at the core of Berrio’s practice: the wisdom that humans and nature may not only live in harmony, but that they are fundamentally intertwined. The parrot specifically is an extremely significant influence for Berrio. About them, she writes: “Birds have been a source of inspiration to people across the world for centuries. To me, birds symbolize freedom of the soul and transcendence of the earthly human form. Parrots in particular are special to me because my grandfather had a pet parrot who was his lifetime companion.” (C.J. Bartunek, “As Complicated and Elusive as Reality: María Berrio’s Many-Layered Collages,” The Georgia Review, Spring 2019 (online))
Created using her signature paper-collage technique, The Lovers 4 is a contemporary testament to the enduring effect of global craft traditions. Beginning with a sketch, Berrio layers unique segments of paper from origins such as Nepal, Japan, Mexico and beyond. Often hundreds of layers thick, works such as The Lovers 4 thus become syntheses of various places, cultures and histories by way of both their subject matter and their composition, whilst also remaining highly personal. Berrio acknowledges her art’s diverse origins and aspirations, noting: “We are not just one thing, we are a prism of culture. My work celebrates this diversity—not explicitly, but with fantasy—in an attempt to create a narrative that is as complicated and elusive as reality.” (Ibid.)
