BIOGRAPHY
María Sánchez (b. Caracas, Venezuela) is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Sánchez is currently a MFA Candidate for the Intermedia and Digital Arts (IMDA) program at UMBC. She holds a Graphic Design BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art.
Sánchez is working as the IMDA Assistant for UMBC and as the Gallery Assistant for Connect+Collect Gallery and BmoreArt.
María was awarded the RTKL Fellowship for her installation Desenterrando (Unearthing).
Her work has been exhibited at Transformer DC, VisArts Center Kaplan Gallery, Current Space, Julio Fine Art Gallery, 2640 Space and MICA Wilgus Gallery. Her photographs have been featured in multiple articles for BmoreArt online magazine and one for the printed ISSUE 8.
María is currently teaching Graphic Design at UMBC. She was an adjunct faculty at the Graphic Design Department at MICA and gave a lecture about her filmmaking process at John Hopkins/MICA Film Center in 2023.
STATEMENT
Leaving my native country, Venezuela, at a young age and not being able to return has led me to explore questions about self, place, and belonging in my work. There is an obsessive desire to volver a la tierra, to go back to your roots. Utilizing materials found in the U.S., I reterritorialize them into sacred objects based on memories from Venezuela, family, and the myth and cult of María Lionza. As a way to process the conditions that brought me here, I aim to explore the intersection between politics in spiritualism, and spiritualism in politics. Across installation, film, sculpture, drawing, sound, and performance, I create narratives about my ancestors, embodiment, and spirituality.
Using the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air, I am channeling Venezuelan figures like: la venus de Tacarigua, María Lionza, la virgen de Coromoto, and my grandmother, Maritza de la Coromoto. I form connections with them by unearthing memories and offering sacred objects made with natural materials like ashes, sand, coffee, and my hair. Similarly to María Lionza’s devotees, my art practice is embodied into healing rituals, and cleansing ceremonies for protection from this land, as gratitude, and a connection to my ancestors.
