V O G U E | Diaspora: Mariana Monteagudo

The Venezuelan artist Mariana Monteagudo best known for her Munecas, doll sculptures, is beginning a new body of work. Little heroes, action figures, cartoon characters such as Betty Boop and Barbie dolls are the sources of inspiration for her new series titled " Fake Idols."

Monteagudo's work reveals an element of irony, not only in her unprejudiced use of iconography, but also in the way the artist takes features from toys, figures designed to show tenderness, with their big heads and moving expressions.

" This is the beginning of a new stage in my work. I'm starting to investigate new materials such as hard latex and other synthetic derivates, in a search that will certainly enrich my work and provide new languages or means of expression to my 10 years + career. The work has been slowly unfolding a different spirit, more industrial, more hybrid, taking references from the memory of our generation. A look from the distance to the icons of our society, trying not to take them for granted, but showing a different side, sometimes dark and frightening."
~~Mariana Monteagudo

The artist lives and works in Miami.

Fake Idols

Courtesy Mariana Monteagudo

Fake Idols will be on exhibit at Almeida Dale Gallery, Sao Paulo
July 2011

Assistir Filme »

Mariana Monteagudo is a thirty-something artist from Venezuela who has been working her series of doll sculptures over the last decade. Her ceramic and mixed-media dolls are intriguing and fascinating. Her artwork shows her interest in pre-Columbian aesthetics, related to magic and taken as an important graphic expression of Latin American Culture. Her work also shows her attraction to Japanese manga and mass-market toys.
Munecas (Dolls) is the generic term Monteagudo uses to describe her creations since 1998. With them, the artist has received important awards in Venezuela, and her pieces have been featured in group shows at home and abroad. Her unusual characters have attracted the attention of many critics, and they have been linked to Tibetan Buddhism's.

Double Redhead