María Berrío: A Feast for Ammit

‘A Feast for Ammit tells the story of a young woman, Echo, who meets another woman, Eris, and quickly becomes intrigued by her.’

‘It is during their second meeting that Eris confides in Echo that she is a Masked One. Echo, already captivated by Eris, now becomes even more so with this revelation, and becomes infatuated with the mask.’

‘An obsession blossoms… Eventually Echo, burning with what she feels is unrequited love, comes to the conclusion that she must become a Masked One as well in order to procure the affection of Eris.’

‘Those who desire to become Masked Ones must first have their souls deemed worthy. Their hearts must be weighed against the weight of a feather. For those whose hearts are impure, their souls will be forever lost… Heedless of any warnings, Echo agrees to undergo the ritual, and is then gifted a mask.’

‘Gift in hand, she takes it home and agonises for some time over actually donning it. She is terrified to do so. She tells herself that the leap into love is supposed to be a terrifying thing, and that making oneself vulnerable is essential to truly love another.’

‘Finally gathering up enough courage, she puts on the mask. Instantly she feels an emptiness flood her entire self. She is hollowed out, and to her dismay she realises that her heart had not been pure. She has become a Vacant.’

‘Unsettled though she is by this turn of events, she is still overjoyed that she is now worthy of Eris, and hunts her down.’

‘In their bubbling excitement, Eris explains that she is deeply grateful and indebted to Echo, for when Eris had undergone the ritual to become a Masked One, she had lost her soul in the process, and had been doomed to lovelessness. Echo screams into the void, utterly devastated to learn that they are both Vacants.’

María Berrío was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1982, completed her BFA at Parsons School of Design in 2004, and her MFA at the New York School of Visual Arts.

Major solo exhibitions include María Berrío: The Children’s Crusade, ICA Boston, USA (2023); María Berrío: Esperando mientras la noche florece (Waiting for the Night to Bloom), The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA (2021). Institutional group exhibitions include Spirit in the Land, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA (2023); Women Painting Women, The Modern, Fort Worth, Texas, USA (2022); A Natural Turn, The DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, USA (2022); Born in Flames: Feminist Futures, Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA (2021); Labor: Motherhood & Art in 2020, University Art Museum at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, USA (2020); Present Tense: Recent Gifts of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA (2019); People Get Ready at Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina, USA (2018); Prospect.4 Triennial, New Orleans, USA (2017–2018), Art on Paper Biennial, Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA (2017), CUT N MIX, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA (2015).

Berrío’s work is in permanent collections including Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, USA; Dallas Museum of Art, USA; LACMA, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA; Museum Of Contemporary Art Chicago, USA; Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, New York, NY, USA; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, Florida, USA; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, USA; Weatherspoon Museum of Art at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA; Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.

Additionally, her work can also be seen in the public realm at the N subway stop at Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn, where 14 of the artist’s works have been translated in mosaic using a variety of media including glass, ceramic and enamel.