Maria Fernanda Cuartas is a Colombian contemporary artist based in Cali. She has lived and worked there for most of her life. A self-taught painter, she also trained with renowned artists Bernadino Labrada, Guillermo Ruiz, and Fernando Polo. With their guidance, she refined her craft and built a distinctive voice within neo-figurative art. Today, she is best known for her faceless human figures, vibrant color palette, and the use of symbolism and visual metaphors.

Her artistic journey began in childhood with music, theater, and ceramics. Later, she turned fully to painting. She first explored still life, landscapes, and abstract compositions using oil, watercolor, charcoal, and pastels. In addition, she experimented with installations, video mapping, short films, sculpture, and collage. After years of exploration, Cuartas chose oil painting as her primary medium. She was drawn to its richness, depth, and ability to transmit light and emotion.

Cuartas’s work stands out immediately. Her anonymous human figures without faces appear in saturated and contrasting colors. These images transform everyday urban and domestic scenes into powerful metaphors of human existence. Because of the absence of identity, her characters become universal. Viewers project themselves into the work. As a result, the paintings create a dialogue between the intimate and the collective, the personal and the universal.

Under the guidance of Labrada, Ruiz, and Polo, Cuartas sharpened her conceptual focus. She uses visual metaphors to reflect on contemporary social issues. By simplifying forms and combining subtle lines with vibrant colors, she creates space for the audience to mentally finish each piece. Therefore, every painting becomes a collaborative act of meaning-making.

Her influences include metaphysical art, neo-figurativism, and artists such as René Magritte, Amedeo Modigliani, Caravaggio, and Maria Tereza Negreiros. Her creative process often unfolds at night. This is when she sketches and develops new ideas.

Throughout her career, Cuartas has exhibited internationally. She has presented work at Museo Moya (Vienna, Austria), Americas Museum (Miami, USA), Latin Art Museum, Villa Pisani (Venice, Italy), Crisolart Gallery (Barcelona, Spain), and Casa Cuadrada Gallery (Bogotá, Colombia). She also earned four international awards in Spain, Italy, and the United States. In addition, press outlets have published numerous national and international features about her.

Her artwork is in personal collections throughout Colombia, the US, the UK and Europe.

Through daily discipline and constant exploration, Maria Fernanda Cuartas continues to expand the possibilities of contemporary Colombian painting. Her artworks remain visually striking, deeply symbolic, and universally engaging.

Artist Works Of Art

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