Bio & Process
Studio practice
About my process
Everything in my work starts with the surface, with layers of transparent acrylic, graphite, and ink laid down until the canvas reads with the depth of water and, in recent years, finished to a glossy, luminous sheen in which the layers themselves produce an optical illusion of depth, so that the eye travels into the painting and back out again with the shifting of the light. The female figure is narrowed to a single continuous line that copper wire, sewn by hand through the canvas, travels alongside and across, and as the light or the viewer moves, the wire's shadow tangles with the drawn line so that the painting passes continually between two and three dimensions. The palette moves through the purples, cyans, yellow-greens, and deep blues of a Caribbean childhood, deployed as a reference to the female and as a claim on beauty, a quality long assigned to the decorative and excluded from what was considered serious art. Shaped by the sculpture of the 1970s, and by Eva Hesse and Robert Gober in particular, the work is rooted in the feminine as I have embodied, felt, and lived it, in fertility, cell systems, and women's bodies, and in the pull between perception and consciousness, and it asks the viewer for proximity, since what reads as abstraction from across the room resolves, up close, into an eye, then a hip, then a cell, and sometimes a small smile that has been meeting the viewer's gaze the entire time.
Biography
Mariestella Colón Astacio (b. Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, 1970) is a painter based in the greater Atlanta region. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, she pursued her art education at the San Juan League of Art Students and the Central School of Visual Arts in Santurce, PR.In 1988, she won a prize in the National Talent Search Award of the Pratt Institute in New York. This marked the beginning of her academic journey in the United States, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in 1992. She furthered her education at New York University, where she earned a Master of Arts in 1995, with a semester in Venice, Italy, in 1994 through the university's exchange program.
Mariestella's work has been showcased in exhibitions including La Galería de Arte USC in Santurce, PR, the Masur Museum of Contemporary Art in Monroe, LA, Tomorrow’s Stars at Verge Art Fair in NYC, and exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico in Santurce and the Museo de Las Americas in Old San Juan, PR.
From 2002 to 2007, Mariestella actively contributed to the art community by serving as a board member of NurtureART Non-Profit Inc. During her tenure, she played a pivotal role in establishing the NURTUREart Gallery and Emerging Curators Resource Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Her responsibilities included overseeing staff, organizing events, and fundraising efforts.
Statement
I create universes with their own constellations, moods, and protagonists. They are informed by the feminine, nature, its colors, topography, and cell systems. In my work, the human form is distilled into a single line that intertwines with the shadow cast by sewn copper wire. The copper wire symbolizes energy and interconnection, acknowledging the act of sewing, a gesture rooted in the female experience. Here the viewer is encouraged to approach the canvas, where rendered eyes emerge. These elements come to life by the viewer's own movement. In this moment, surprise unfolds at smiley faces looking back, happy to see them.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2017 | Crystal Spirits, 201 W Marcy St, Santa Fe, NM
2016 | Crystal Spirits, Pier 94 – 711 12th Ave, New York, NY
2012 | Mira Mira! Look up., La Galería de Arte USC, Santurce, PR
2006 | Recent Paintings, Cutting Vision Corporate, 665 Broadway, NYC
2004 | Cellular Form, QTIP Galleries, Flushing, NY
2003
| Ficciones y Periferias, Museo Las Américas, PR
2002
| Recent Paintings, Andreas Esberg, 500 Fifth Ave, NYC
2000 | Trazos e Ilusiones, Pamil Fine Arts, San Juan, PR
1999 | De Mujer a Mujer, Banco Bilbao y Vizcaya, San Juan, PR
1998
| Recent Paintings, Liga de Arte de San Juan, PR
1997
| Recent Paintings, Andreas Esberg, 500 Fifth Ave, NYC
1995 | FutureUnknown.com
1994 | Graduate Exhibition, Grey Galleries, NYC
1993
| Mujer, Citibank Headquarters, Bayamon, PR
1993 | Transformaciones…
Colegio de Contadores de PR, San Juan, PR
Selected Group Shows
2025 |
Puerto Rican Women in Arts, Liga de Arte de San Juan, PR
2022 | Transcending Boundaries, Yuan Ru Art Center, Seattle, WA
2018 | USC: 20th Anniversary Exhibition And Tribute To Myrna Báez, Galería De Arte Usc, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2017 |
[99+1= la centena] Galería De Arte Usc, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2012 |
Group Show, (3rd place best of show), Masur Museum of Contemporary Art, LA
2012 | Tomorrow’s Stars, Verge Art Fair, NY, NY
2008 | Exposición Colección Reyes-Veray, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
2007 | MICROSPACE, Cheryl McGinnes Gallery, NY, NY
2006 | LOST IN PLACE, Planet Thailand, Brooklyn, NY, NY
2004 | Group Show, LMCC Gallery, NY, NY
2003 | Group Show, Arte Iberoamericano Contemporaneo, Córdoba, Argentina.
2003 | Exhibit of the Permanent Collection, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Puerto Rico
2003 | Muestra Nacional, Museo La Puntilla, Instituto de Cultura de PR, SanJuan PR
2003 | Subasta Beneficio a los Artistas, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce, PR
2003 | De Mujer, Hotel Caribe Hilton, PR
2003 | Nurturing the NEW, 114 E 17st, Chelsea, NY, NY
2002 | Subasta Beneficio a los Artistas, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce, PR
2001 | Symbolism, Time Square Gallery, NY, NY
2000 | Small Works, Pamil Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2000 | Subasta Beneficio a los Artistas, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, Santurce, PR
2000 | Women and Abstraction, ACC Gallery, Atlantic City, NJ
1994 | Grey Galleries, NYU, NY, NY
1993 | Positive/NegativeIX, Slocumb Galleries, Tennessee
1993 | 7th Annual Women in the Visual Arts, Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT
1993 | Group Show, Williams Arts Center, Rutherford, New Jersey
1992 | Group Show, School of Architecture, Venice, Italy
1992 | 9th Annual Exhibit, Art Gallery of Fells Point, Baltimore, MD
1998 | Young Women Artists, Museum of Art History, San Juan, PR
Education
1988 -1992 | BFA, Pratt Institute, NYC
1992 – 1995 | MA, New York University, NYC
Art Community & Leadership Roles
2003 – 2013
NURTUREart Non-Profit Inc., Board of Trustees / Advisory Board. NurtureART was an organization dedicated to the development of contemporary artists and curators in all of their career stages; bringing both together through our artist registry.
1999 – 2014
Founder and Executive Director of GalleryArtist.com, a fine arts online community which provided template-based websites (Flash and Html), an integrated event calendar system, and, e-commerce to its members. GA was an online alternative art space, art forum, and art listing dedicated to the promotion and exposure of emerging artists.
Awards
1986-87 Watercolor Competition, Sponsored by the Governor of PR
1988 Pratt National Talent Search, NYC
20123rd place best of show, Masur Museum of Contemporary Art, LA
2012 | Tomorrow’s Stars, Verge Art Fair, NY, NY