Profile: María Magdalena Campos-Pons

María Magdalena Campos-Pons is an internationally renowned artist who currently calls Nashville home.

Campos-Pons is the Cornelius Vanderbilt chair of fine arts and identifies just as much as a teacher as an artist. She grew up in a small village in the Cuban state of Matanzas, and the community, topography, and vibrant Cuban artistic community she experienced in her youth continues to inform her work. In 2023, Campos-Pons was named a MacArthur Fellow in recognition of how her art “forges connections between her own experiences as a Cuban woman and global issues of displacement and inequality.”

We’re speaking with her today about her upbringing, the heart of her love for teaching and her belief in art’s ability to heal individuals and society. You can see her work at Frist’s Ingram Gallery Sept. 27, 2024 through Jan. 5, 2025 in a exhibition called Behold.

This episode was co-produced by Magnolia McKay and Katherine Ceicys.

Today’s guest:

• María Magdalena Campos-Pons

Learn more

• Learn more about Campos-Pons’ place in the MacAurthur Foundation’s Class of 2023.
• View Campos-Pons’ work at the Gallery Wendi Norris, Galerie Barbara Thumm, and Galleria Giampaolo Abbondio.

Red Composition (detail), from the series Los Caminos (The Path), 1997. © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Image courtesy of the artist.

Untitled, from the series Un Pedazo de Mar, 2019. © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Image courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris.

De Las Dos Aguas (Of the Two Waters), 2007. © María Magdalena Campos-Pons. Image courtesy of the artist.