Florida Art Shows- Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at Orlando Museum of Art

You can see the art history references throughout MJ Torrecampo’s work in this exhibition. The different perspectives she uses create a unique way to tell stories within each canvas.

The museum’s information on the artist and her work-

Born in the Philippines, MJ Torrecampo immigrated to the United States with her family when she was nine. Eventually the family settled in Orlando, and Torrecampo attended the University of Central Florida with the goal of earning a degree in mechanical engineering. An elective class in art history sparked her interest, and in time she changed her academic direction to earn a BFA in painting in 2014. This was followed by an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2020. Having returned to Central Florida, Torrecampo is currently an artist in residence at the Art & History Museums Maitland. Her recent paintings are complex narratives that examine the storyline of her life and of her extended family as immigrants negotiating their past, present, and future while they establish themselves in a new homeland. Although the subjects of her paintings are people, places, and events, it is her exploration of social relationships, psychological insights, and cultural adjustments that provide depth.

The paintings presented here are a new series completed for the Florida Prize exhibition. In these works, Torrecampo investigates her conflicted relationship with religion and spirituality, reimagining familiar biblical stories in the setting and context of the contemporary world. Specifically, she has chosen a series of moments in the life of Mary and the birth of Christ. Without being didactic, paintings like Annunciation ask the viewer to consider the volition and agency of Mary as she undertakes the profound responsibility of giving birth to Christ. In the central panel Mary is preoccupied watering her house plants. Out of the corner of her eye she notices the Angel Gabriel letting himself in, apparently uninvited. The painting’s left panel depicts children squirming in their seats at church during communion. The right panel shows a group of anti-abortion protesters blocking access to a women’s health clinic.

A distinctive feature of Torrecampo’s paintings is her use of overhead perspective which provides a God’s eye view of all that is going on. She adopted this device when she decided to work from her imagination and began to visualize scenes from this viewpoint. With roofs off, we see what is happening in multiple rooms at once, and the architectural geometry of walls in homes and apartments becomes a means to move through each narrative event. People gather here and there, sometimes in separate places and sometimes flowing from one space to the next. It is not always obvious whether the events we are looking at are simultaneous or sequential.

Torrecampo’s unusual perspective and architectural structures reflect her inventive interpretations of devices used by painters of the early Renaissance. References abound in this group of works that explicitly address this artistic period and related Christian theology. A look at Torrecampo’s Annunciation and the same subject by Fra Angelico reveals many wonderful comparisons. The Renaissance master’s painting is set in a loggia, an open walled or “transparent” room through which the viewer sees multiple spaces inside and out. The architecture of the room is defined by a dramatic perspective which encloses the two figures. Mary sits modestly on a stool and seems apprehensive about the approaching angel. Both paintings imply there are truths within the story that go beyond the text.