María Berrío’s practice weaves together elements of memory, magic and identity, drawing heavily on both her youth in Colombia and her experiences living and working in New York City. Growing up in Bogotá with two brothers, Berrío spent much of her childhood on a family farm just outside the city, which left an indelible mark on her creative consciousness. These early experiences, rich with nature, music and storytelling, continue to inform her art today, which is deeply rooted in her Colombian heritage, yet filtered through the lens of memory.
Berrío moved to New York City when she was 18 years old to attend Parsons School of Design, where she primarily experimented with large-scale charcoal drawings and painting. After receiving her MFA from the New York School of Visual Arts, in 2007, a close friend from Japan introduced her to the exquisite textures and varieties of artisanal Japanese paper and suggested she try working with collage. She became captivated by the medium, once saying, ‘I love the feel, the smell, the different tactile sensations between different types, the colors, and the enormous amount of care that goes into making them…I love all the possibilities [paper] provides and how it continues to surprise me.’
Through her intricate collages, Berrío continues to explore the complex layers of identity and belonging, moving fluidly between the cultures that have shaped her—her Colombian roots and her experiences in the dynamic urban landscape of New York City. Today, she works out of a studio in Brooklyn, where she creates works that are as much about the flow of energy in the city as they are about the mythical, vivid world of her childhood recollections.
Major solo exhibitions include María Berrío: The Children’s Crusade, ICA Boston, USA (2023); María Berrío: Esperando mientras la noche florece (Waiting for the Night to Bloom), The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2021). Institutional group exhibitions include Spirit in the Land, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA (2023), travelling to Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA (2024) and Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, USA (2024–2025); Women Painting Women, The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (2022); A Natural Turn, The DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, USA (2022); Born in Flames: Feminist Futures, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA (2021); Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020, University Art Museum at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA (2020); Present Tense: Recent Gifts of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA (2019); People Get Ready at Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, USA (2018); Prospect.4 Triennial, New Orleans, USA (2017–2018), Art on Paper Biennial, Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA (2017), CUT N MIX, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA (2015).
Berrío’s work is held in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, USA; Dallas Museum of Art, USA; Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston; ICA Miami, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), USA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, USA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, USA; Weatherspoon Museum of Art at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.
