“Cómo me Convertí en Lava” (How I Became Lava) is the culmination of a year-long exploration into the intersection of sensuality, the female form, and artistic creation. The exhibition showcases landscapes that may evoke destruction or new beginnings, as a means of exploring the process of creation and transformation. While originally focused on a pessimistic view of the future, the exhibition has evolved to focus on acceptance and the concept of becoming lava. 

The word "lava" derives from the Italian and Latin words for "fall" and "slide", respectively, and represents a transformational process of freely descending into an essential form that solidifies and changes shape.

The exhibition aims to depict the journey from idea to final creation, exploring the process of painting and transformation. The towering female figure that dominates the landscapes eventually realizes that she must become lava - a form that allows for free descent and radical transformation.

The artist's Caribbean identity also comes to the fore, seeking to express itself through the cracks of a life lived outside of the Dominican Republic.

Maria Monegro's art practice is defined by several key elements, these include the uses of the erotic, the Caribbean as identity and landscape, the representation of the female body, and solastalgia.

In the “Uses of the Erotic”, Audre Lorde describes the erotic as a power that we can all access. Drawing inspiration from this, Maria is very interested in representing this power to inspire joy.

https://www.tangent-projects.com/project-34-maria-monegro