Maria Cristina Tavera
Maria Cristina Tavera is a contemporary [Hispanic and Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino Americans|Latino] artist, curator, and cultural organizer who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Influenced by her dual citizenship, as well as her transnational movement between her residing Minnesota and Mexico families, she combines historical and contemporary texts and images from recognizable Latin American myths, legends, and present news. Tavera uses her prints, paintings, installations, and Dia de los Muertos ofrendas, or altars, to explore the way that national and cultural icons symbolize complex identities and can construct shared communities at home and abroad. Her artwork is both humorous and confrontational as she invites her viewers to question constructs of race, gender, ethnicity and national and cultural identities. She has exhibited her artwork and curated shows all around the world, and has artworks permanently installed in several art exhibits throughout Minnesota.
Education and career
Tavera was born in 1965. In 1990, Tavera earned a B.A. in Spanish and a B.A. in Latin American Studies, from the University of Minnesota. She later achieved a master's degree from the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs, with an emphasis on Leadership in the Arts.Tavera currently works at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN, where she serves as the Director for the TRIO-McNair Scholars program, which is a program that helps low income, first-generation and underrepresented students with admission to graduate school. Before working at Augsburg, Tavera founded the Mira Gallery at the Instituto de Cultura y Educacion at El Colegio in South Minneapolis, where she worked for two years curating exhibitions by Latino artists. She has also previously worked as the Community Organizer for Latinos en Accion, a community outreach program that serves the Latinx community in the Twin Cities.
Tavera is the author of the book "Mexican Pulp Art" published in 2007.
Artwork
Tavera is a multidisciplinary artist, who often works with screen printing because of the medium's long history of spreading ideas to the masses. Her work explores how Latinx immigrants are seen and how they want to be seen. Tavera's art focuses on Latinx iconography, symbols, physical traits, and paraphernalia to analyze Latinx ethnicity and culture. Through her art, Tavera aims to make possible conversations about difficult topics for which words don't always exist.In 2018, her work was featured on the cover and in an artist spotlight in the academic journal, Diálogo: An Interdisciplinary Studies Journal, published by the University of Texas Press. Her art works are included in the collections of the Hagfors Center at Augsburg University; the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth, MN; the Plains Museum in Fargo, ND; and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, MN.