I am a painter drawn to the emotional weight of memory, often referencing personal experiences and inherited histories. My work is deeply influenced by the people, landscape, and architecture of my upbringing in rural Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. I come from a family and land marked by the sugarcane industry in Puerto Rico, which has shaped my interest in how place, material, and memory can carry unspoken histories.
Working primarily in oil or acrylic on canvas or panel, I frequently incorporate domestic elements such as tiles, rococo furnishings, mundillo (bobbin lace), stained glass, and ironwork to question everyday interiors and the layered histories they contain. I reference both the personal and the historical, integrating family photographs and Puerto Rican archives to explore the power of objects as bridges between past and present.
Color is central to my practice. Influenced by tropical architecture and the saturated environments of my childhood, as well as moments in the present that echo those memories, I think about how color can hold memory, place, and feeling simultaneously. I paint all sides of the surface to capture the textures, sounds, and scents of a moment, approaching memory as a living, timeless force that shapes how we understand ourselves and the world.
Each painting begins with a specific person or memory in mind, which guides my material choices. These have included shredded car tires, pearl powder, plantain leaves, hibiscus, and other elements. I believe that materials themselves can hold memories and history, becoming vessels for what might otherwise remain unspoken.
Based in Brooklyn, New York, Ruiz earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Humanistic Studies from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2020. She has exhibited at Bad Bunny’s Residency, San Juan, PR; Deanna Evans Projects, New York, NY; Untitled Art Fair, Miami, FL; Bishop Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; NYU's Latinx Project, New York, NY; NY Culture Club, New York, NY; Tchotchke Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Selenas Mountain, Brooklyn, NY; Beverly’s NYC, New York, NY; Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY; Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD; and Current Space, Baltimore, MD. Ruiz was featured in Untitled Edit, Visionary Magazine, Cult Bytes, and New American Paintings, Issue 160.
She will be part of a group exhibition at SURCO in San Juan, PR, in the Fall of 2025.
contact: mariissuun@gmail.com