In this photographic installation, Maria Martinez-Cañas arranges wild nature into an interior room for reflection. This contemplative space becomes a garden unto itself with an actual view to the trees beyond. The photographs were taken in the middle of the woods in Pine Plains, NY, a place that is very important to the artist, during June 2006. She used a 1952 Linhoff Standard Press 4 x 5 camera and Polaroid Type 55 film. The images have been printed on newsprint and adhered to the wall with a layer of beeswax, which both to preserves and provides a sensual overlay to the experience. Curly willow branches extend from the wall adding a dimensional element to the space. This project was created originally in 2006 at The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida International University in Miami, FL.

Throughout her career, Maria Martinez-Cañas has developed experimental approaches to making and presenting photography. Her work has been exhibited widely with solo exhibitions at Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY; Sol Mednick Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL; and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Her collaborative Dustograms, created with sculptor Kim Brown, have been exhibited at Lehigh University Art Gallery, Lehigh, PA, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL. Her constructed large-scale photographs from her Piedras Materia series were exhibited at Wave Hill in Abundant Invention, in 2000. She received her BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia, PA, and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, IL. For more information visit www.mariamartinez-canas.com