Edge-to-Edge Splendor Fills Maria Yolanda Liebana's Buoyant Paintings

'A Call to Heretics' (2024). All images courtesy of Maria Yolanda Liebana, shared with permission Edge-to-Edge Splendor Fills Maria Yolanda Liebana's Buoyant Paintings Art Kate Mothes Share Pin Email Copy Bookmark Tarot, pop culture, and personal narrative converge in the maximalist, mixed-media paintings of Maria Yolanda Liebana. The New York-based artist opens her first institutional solo exhibition at Montclair State University's George Segal Gallery this month. Titled A Place to Be Held, Liebana's show revolves around a fantastical, Eden-like garden exploding with an extravaganza of rainbows, flowers, clouds, cosmic phenomena, and more. 'The exhibition imagines a matriarchal world where chance, identity, and desire are always in motion,' says a statement. Liebana incorporates a wide range of materials into her vibrant works, including wallpaper, mirror tiles, pearls, glitter, disco balls, sequins, and rhinestones. She embraces the luminosity of joy and playfulness while nodding to Catholicism and ancient mythologies, invoked by symbols like chalices and cherubs. As a first-generation Latinx immigrant who grew up in New Jersey, the artist has long been interested in the nature of selfhood and inheritance, and the birth of her daughter inspired a body of work that explores motherhood 'as both a physical and spiritual terrain shaped by labor, wonder, and transformation.' She depicts confident, empowered women who dance, recline, and enjoy one another's company, representing universal feminine dominion and strength. A Place to Be Held opens on September 15 and continues through December 11 in Montclair, New Jersey. See more on the artist's Instagram. 'Ten of Cups' (2023) 'The World according to April 26th 2023' (2023) 'Queen of Wands' (2023) Detail of 'Queen of Wands' Detail of 'A Call to Heretics'