Maria Clara Merçon’s BFA thesis exhibition was originally scheduled from April 13–17 in the Oliver Art Center on CCA’s Oakland campus. Due to the Bay Area’s COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, we are sharing work by Maria Clara and other graduating students on CCA’s website and social media channels. 

Artwork by Maria Clara Merçon will be featured on CCA's official social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, starting April 21 at 9am PDT. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is an exploration of the relationship between the personal and communal, as well as how history affects the individual and vice versa. The artwork shows how the past, present and future are intertwined, and that one must look back and understand its past while striving for a better future. I fluctuate between ceramic sculptures, screen prints, video art, installations and performances since different materials and techniques open new doors to express the same concepts and themes. The aspect of movement and migration is very present in my work through the imagery of water, fish, landscapes and my own body. I'm constantly trying to unpack the role of immigrants in the United States and also understand migration as a concept that exists emotionally and not just physically. I'm searching for familiarity in a different land and recording that process in my pieces. In short, I like to describe my work as the longing of the river, trying to make its way back to the sea.

BIO

Maria Clara Merçon (b.1997 Niterói, Brazil) is a lesbian, Latinx, multimedia artist based in Oakland, California.

Above: Maria Clara Merçon, The Promise of Development Brought More Shipwrecks than Sailors, fall 2019. Documentation of a performance made at Lombard Hill in San Francisco, California, in partnership with Juan Huerta Coello. Recorded, edited, and mastered by Gabriel Lage.

Video documentation of The Promise of Development Brought More Shipwrecks than Sailors is available on Maria Clara Merçon's website. Other notable works by Maria Clara Merçon include I WANT MY APPLE PIE,  To Unsettle The Horizon, and untitled poem video. You can find her on Instagram at @claramercon.