María Emilia Castagliola (born 1946) is a Cuban-American painter and a conceptual artist. Born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, Cuba, she immigrated to the United States in 1961. Her early work stressed her Cuban roots with the use of Catholic and Renaissance icons; her more recent projects have been installation and community-based.

Biography

Castagliola has a B.A. degree in sociology, in addition to B.F.A and M.F.A degrees from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

. She has taught art, as an assistant professor, at the same university. Castagliola has a background in social services and religion. Her early work synthesized her Cuban roots with Catholic and Renaissance icons, but she also tried to incorporate personal things in her artwork. She then moved on towards installation and community-based projects. Castagliola discusses that it is within her work that we can see and comprehend her bicultural dichotomy. She focuses her artwork on Latin American traditions and incorporates Spanish and religious icons that were present or significant in her childhood. Maria Emilia Castagliola considers herself to be an "outsider" even though she works in the mainstream.

Artworks

''A Matter of Trust'' (1994)

''A Matter of Trust'' is an artwork that was created by Castagliola in 1994. She arranged ordinary paper envelopes in quilt patterns of triangles, rectangles, and squares in order to create an artwork that represented intimacy and trust. Castagliolas's friends and family members provided her with their deepest personal secrets , and she then sewed them shut inside the envelope.

''In Praise of Federico Garcia Lorca'' (2001)

Castagliola used

Federico Garcia Lorca Federico (; ) is a given name and surname. It is a form of Frederick, most commonly found in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. People with the given name Federico Artists * Federico Ágreda, Venezuelan composer and DJ. * Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, ...

's work "verbal launch pads" for a collection of paintings exhibited in the

Gulf Coast Museum of Art The Gulf Coast Museum of Art was located at 12211 Walsingham Road, Largo, Florida. It housed contemporary Florida art in the permanent collection.Gulf Coast Museum of Art"Permanent Collection" ''Gulf Coast Museum of Art website'', 2007. Retriev ...

in 2001.

Exhibitions

* Tampa Museum of Art, Florida, solo exhibition. (1993)

Collections

*Smithsonian American Art Museum, "A Matter of Trust" (1994) and " The Birthing Album (1994).

Publications

*''Maria Emilia Castagliola: In Praise of Federico Garcia Lorca'', with Jose Martinez-Canas (Gulf Coast Museum of Art, 2001)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castagliola, Maria Emilia 1949 births Living people 20th-century Cuban women artists 21st-century Cuban women artists Artists from Havana Cuban emigrants to the United States University of South Florida alumni University of South Florida faculty