MARIA LAURA HENDRIX

Born in Mexico, 1979

Lives and works in Camarillo, California, USA

In her MFA thesis titled Hasta La Raiz/To the Root, interdisciplinary artist Maria Laura Hendrix focused her research on 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings and labor practices in the modern citrus industry in Ventura County.

The perceptions of lemons as luxury items then and now remain the same. This was the jumping-off point where Hendrix connected the work of her parents as laborers in the citrus industry and her own as a painter. In both forms of labor, there is an element of invisibility and financial precarity. Though painting and art, in general, are perceived as a privilege, financial precarity is ever-present as it is for laborers in the citrus industry. Hendrix time-stamped the titles of her paintings to remind the viewer that labor was performed. As a Latina and first-generation immigrant, she sees her art practice as a way to resist and destabilize oppressive societal structures.

Maria Laura Hendrix earned her MFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2020 and her BA in Psychology from Cal State Northridge. Hendrix is on the faculty at Ventura College’s art department. She has exhibited her work in Los Angeles, Pittsburg, Canada, and Ventura County.

Visit the artist’s website: www.marialaurahendrix.art