Museo de Arte de Ponce at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport

As part of our collaboration with Aerostar Airport Holdings, we are bringing a selection of our collection to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, offering travelers the opportunity to experience art beyond the Museum’s galleries.

Our internationally renowned collection includes nearly 5,000 works of European, Puerto Rican, and Latin American art and represents one of the Caribbean’s most significant artistic collections. While our historic building, remains closed as it undergoes reconstruction efforts, we continue to share meaningful art experiences through collaborations like this one.

At Gate C, visitors can enjoy El Balcón de Maricao a work from María de Mater O’Neilla hat celebrates Puerto Rico’s extraordinary natural beauty.

María de Mater O’Neill Becerra (Puerto Rico, n. / b. 1960)
El balcón de Maricao
1990
Oil and oil pastel on canvas
96 x 340 in. (243.8 x 863.6 cm)
Museo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Gift of Reyes Veray Collection

In El balcón de Maricao (The Balcony in Maricao), María de Mater O'Neill alludes to the Puerto Rican art world by depicting a house in the town of Maricao, a gathering spot for artists and other prominent figures from the country's artistic scene. This monumental work consists of eight individual stretchers of varying sizes, assembled into a single unit, and is distinguished by its asymmetry, particularly at the top. The work’s format reveals O'Neill's interest in exploring the limits of space. She painted both an interior and an exterior space simultaneously by positioning the viewer on a balcony facing outwards. Additionally, the varying dimensions of the eight stretchers grant the audience different degrees of visibility over the represented area. On the other hand, the large scale of the work offers a rich perspective of the gestural technique that the artist used to create her composition. The brushstrokes that cover the entire pictorial surface evoke her movement while painting.

O'Neill's artistic production spans a range of stylistic trends and thematic concerns. In her compositions, she explores space, landscapes, and materiality through a gestural abstract language. The dynamic nature of her pictorial work was especially pronounced during the 1990s, when the artist reflected deeply on the sometimes-fixed narratives imposed on the production of Caribbean creators; static ideas that have resulted from a repeated discourse about national identity. Consequently, at the end of the millennium, the artist stopped making art for two years and dedicated herself to other forms of cultural work, such as the creation of the cybernetic magazine, El cuarto del Quenepón, which she founded in 1995. During the last few decades, O'Neill’s career has been marked by her teaching and management roles at institutions such as the Universidad de Puerto Rico and the Escuela de Artes Plásticas.