My series of athletes/portraits, painted in oils on linen, show luminous torsos woven into a grid of gestural drips. The paintings channel a specific, personal moment, of profound realization. Each emotive piece explores the range of emotions I experienced when confronted by my first live boxing match – the cascading drips of blood and sweat that stained the boxer’s body, the solace and tenacity in the individual’s gaze.

White Rope

Cabello launched her captivating White Rope - Aboriginal Boxing Legends series of paintings at the Brooklyn (DUMBO) Arts Festival in 2011. These works depict and perpetuate the oral histories of Dave Sands, Ron Richards, Tony Mundine and Lionel Rose. Many of their outstanding accomplishments and exchanges with their international peers have been fading from contemporary conversation, rekindling these oral histories is key to Cabello’s artistic odyssey.

Australian Aboriginal Boxing Legends-White Rope

“The Pugilist Passion” was first exhibited at MLC Gallery during the World Youth Day celebrations in Sydney, Australia 2008. The launch was the first stage of a life long project that shall eventually consist of fifteen life size oil paintings.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity (PCL) Rome and WYD08 Directors officially approved this exhibition. Only 20 applications were approved from a field of nearly 600 unique applications.

The Pugilist Passion

My politically charged artworks foreground the often overlooked first September 11. The U.S backed military coup d’état brought General Augusto Pinochet to power and heralded an ominous chapter in my home country's history. In 1971, my parents fled the impending doom of Chile's internationally-backed dictatorship. My family's rich history, political passions, and personal experience inspire this series. 
My sojourn in 2019 solidified my Latin American identity as an activist artist. I felt entrenched in the history and traditions of the activist artists and poets targeted through the coup d’état. Thousands of leftist academics, artists and activists were rounded up in the stadium. A culture was being deliberately exterminated.

First September 11-The Chilean Military Coup 1973

The colour of the first layer (imprimatura) - cobalt violet is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci "It has been said that Leonardo da Vinci preferred to meditate in a lavender or purple - colored light”. Renee Phillips

Miriam Cabello