Marisa <3

Paintings: Tauromaquia


Tauromaquia, 2024 My series, Tauromaquia, explores my multicultural Spanish and Indian heritage using the metaphor of bullfighting to examine the generational impacts of colonization and cultural violence. I analyze the personal complexities of mixed identity by engaging with historical painting themes, motifs, and visual language from Spain and India. 

By using these motifs to tell personal stories, I mythologize and preserve my family history. These stories, sourced from family oral tradition, photographs, and memories, navigate conflict and loss through the lens of my cultural experiences. Having never visited either country, I make this work as an outsider to my parent cultures. I resurrect the visual cultures of my ancestors and grant myself conditional access to my inherited cultures from which my mixed-race Otherizes me. This access is dependent on taking elements of the visual traditions of Spain and India and anchoring them to specific memories from my upbringing outside of these cultures. 

I tether my memories to my ancestral cultures while simultaneously remaining disconnected and held at a distance. Through these paintings, I create a singular visual language unique to my identity as a mixed-race American.
















Building Backwards: SMFA Senior Thesis Show

My thesis paintings and jewelry pieces were featured in “Building Backwards,” the SMFA Senior Thesis show in the Anderson Gallery at the SMFA in Boston, MA from May 8-18 2024. Read more about the show here.


Kinesis I, oil paint and grommets on canvas paper, 12 x 9 inches
Kinesis II, oil paint and grommets on canvas paper, 12 x 9 inches
Of the Sea, oil paint and grommets on canvas
Offering of Chorizo, oil paint and grommets on canvas, 9 x 13 inches
Offering of Pears, oil paint and grommets on canvas, 12 x 11 inches
Sketch: Self Portrait as Bull and Torera, oil paint and grommets on canvas paper, 9 x 12 inches
Self Portrait as Bull and Torera, oil paint and grommets on canvas,  32 x 58 inches

Cumpleaños, oil paint and grommets on canvas , 16 x 22 inches


Nightstand Toro, oil paint on masonite, 12 x 9 inches
Heirlooms, oil paint on masonite, 12 x 9 inches

Hórreo, oil paint and grommets on canvas, 25 x 30 inches


Tauromaquia, oil paint and grommets on canvas, 31 x 23 inches

The Arena, oil paint on canvas paper, 12 x 9 inches
Euology for a Bull, oil paint and grommets on canvas, 48 x 35 inches
Sketch: Eulogy for a Bull, oil paint and grommets on canvas paper, 12 x 9 inches