Maria’s works are symbolic objects that can even reach the status of religiousness. She is making offerings to the goddess of the domestic life, either by elevating the everyday object or by liberating the traditional crafting skills of women from their confinement in the household. Objects that only belong to the privacy of the home are now made public, reinterpreted and elevated to an artistic level, losing their functionality and acquiring new values and meanings.
She is often very literal in her work. Using and combining objects as one would with words, to create messages or paradoxes for the viewer. There are three pylons around which Maria’s work seems to revolve: femininity, the object, and the sentiment. Both in her physical work and in her conceptual endeavors, these three concepts are being rearranged and re-introduced to each other and to the beholder on a regular basis. When the sentiment lays between the femininity and the object, it describes the connection of women with their belongings, in which case we see brooms and dust feathers enclosed in museum displays. In a different arrangement, femininity can stand between the object and the sentiment, charging the object with such immense amounts of female sentiment that irreversibly transforms it to a vessel of feelings utterly stripped from its former identity. Such are the intricately made “necklaces” of Maria Jose that are reluctantly losing their decorative character to accommodate the weight of the messages sewn on them. In yet another arrangement of these three pylons, femininity, the woman, becomes the sentimental object and is transformed into a deity.
Maria’s work is deeply rooted in what has for centuries been considered by patriarchal society as female artisan practices. Techniques and traditions, such as sewing and knitting that served both as the production lines in the self-sufficient household of the past , and as a venting mechanism of the creative forces of women that were often trapped inside family life. This homage to tradition is most possibly brought about by Maria Jose's reflection on the oppressed position of the woman as an issue that becomes past from one generations to the next, much like the techniques she employs.
Elements that only belong to the universe and nature of the women are essential in Maria´s works. The body, maternity, reproduction, menstruation, aspects once considered shameful and taboo for Galician women, are protagonists of many of her works, she gives them the vital value they deserve as essential aspects in the creation of life. Through her works she also claims for freedom and the women's' right on their bodies, sexuality and maternity.
She is challenging religious tradition of misogyny by reintroducing in her works female characters such as Eve, Pandora or Lilith. By using these images, she reopens their cases to be judged from a contemporary perspective.
Through her work she intends to bring art closer to society. She creates situations where the viewer becomes an active participant invited to interact, explore, engage and even become a maker. In a contemporary art scene where relational aesthetics are becoming more and more important, and the position of the viewer shifts to that of participant, Maria’s work is in step with her contemporaries around the World.
Maria Jose´s influences can be traced from Dadaism to more contemporary counterparts such as Eva Hesse, Tracey Emin or Sarah Lucas, engaging on the same struggle to show the female body separated from charges of shame impose on it by patriarchal society.
Although Maria’s work often pays homage to the women of the past, the subjects she is tackling are more contemporary than ever. Even though a lot of progression has been made in regards to gender issues, contemporary society is still far from gender equality.
This exhibition is the result of several years of Maria´s artistic creation, research and constant evolution around the subject of women in society. Her regular trips to Morocco pay a very important part in her pieces and her research about gender issues.
The solo show brings together the most notable pieces of this creative period in an attempt to create a space for reflection.
