Maru Aponte sees colour like no one else I know: we are so lucky she shares her paintings—travelogues from the chromatic ocean—with us. Born in Puerto Rico and a graduate of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Vancouver’s Emily Carr University, Aponte’s work has been making waves in the art world: just see the fresco research undertaken at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture or a presentation of freestanding watercolour works created for a residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
With a starting point in disarming plein air diarism and a love for beautiful papers, Aponte continues to push the scope, bounds, and possibilities of watercolour painting. This ranges from patient, meticulous large-format watercolours on canvas—a remarkable technical feat for anyone who has tried—to serpentine paper works that map out a long tradition and brilliant future for landscape painting. Aponte is posing exciting questions about nature-cultures, self and environment, place and painting: I can’t wait to see where she sails next.
Alongside her innovative practice, I know Maru for her kind heart and brilliant eye. She currently works, paints, and teaches between Puerto Rico, Houston, TX, and Vancouver.
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Which hood are you?
I recently found myself in East Hastings—closer to the water, the mountains, the clouds, and new perspectives.
What do you do?
I am an artist who works with potential energy. I build islands from minerals of memory, drawing from my lived experience of being Puerto Rican and migrating to Canada. I work primarily with watercolour, creating paintings that exist in multiple formats—sometimes standing on their own as islands—exploring independence and autonomy historically denied to Puerto Rico. I work with materials beyond how they are expected to function, showing that there are other routes—where what appears as failure becomes another way of making painting alive.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently exploring materials—making my own surfaces and creating paintings that want to live beyond the wall. They break away from the wall and but remain paintings. The surface carries its own material memory in the paper. Viewing the work means encountering the physicality of memory. I’m also working on immersive watercolours, including a 21-foot wave currently on view at the Richmond Art Gallery.
Where can we find your work?
Right now, my work is in the group exhibition The Chromophiliacs at the Richmond Art Gallery, where I’m showing five works that reflect different parts of my process. Some paintings are also available to view at Pale Fire Projects in Vancouver. I share ongoing work, shows, and residencies on Instagram, and my website is another way to stay connected with my practice.
