Maria Raquel Cochez

My work and investigations focus on the female existence within established concepts of beauty. Through a variety of media it discovers, exposes, and challenges aesthetic standards that create familiar archetypes, and presents visual realities that both invite and defy aesthetic expectations. My art records the damage that pervasive beauty canons and limited definitions of these create in a group and in an individual’s perception of body, beauty, and self worth. It documents countervailing declarations of beauty and historical shifts in standards and their subjectivity.
It explores a series of visual commonalities-- aesthetic systems within a class, culture, or social structure. In my immersive surveys of communities of different classes of women, I observe the varying definitions of beauty that form collectively and organically, or are passed down inter-generationally despite prevailing global standards.

Bachelors in Fine Arts, Fibers 2002, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA

SOLO SHOWS
2018 Mamíferos, Proyecto Poporopo, Guatemala City, Guatemala 2015
2017 From the Bedroom, La Erre, Guatemala City, Guatemala
2015 I’m OK, The Americas Collection Gallery, Miami, FL

2014 Wet n’ Wild, Arteconsult Gallery, Panama, Panama

2012 Little Fat Girl, Los del Patio, Panama, Panama

2011 Home is Where the Heart Is, Diablo Rosso, Panama, Panama - Maria Raquel Cochez: Photography, ESFOTO Festival, El Salvador
2010 I Want Something Else, Red Creative, Atlanta, GA

2009 The Trouble with Food, Diablo Rosso, Panama, Panama

2006 Life Performances, La Casona, Panama, Panama


SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2018 VideoSur, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France - Convicciones Transitorias, El Tunel Gallery, Guatemala City, Guatemala 2017 La Ventana, Allegro Gallery, Panama City, Panama - FUSO Film FESTIVAL, Jardim do Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência, Lisbon Portugal
2016 X Central American Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San Jose, Costa Rica
Artist in Residence Group Show, Kultur Kont...