Margarita Cabrera June 20, 2012

The El Paso Museum of Art will feature eleven artworks from the last ten years by the Monterrey, Mexico born artist Margarita Cabrera. Cabrera first became known for her soft-sculptures of commercial products such as coffeemakers and blenders manufactured at US-owned maquiladoras in Mexico to serve as reminders of the labor involved. In time Cabrera's concern for the role of laborers who build American products outside the United States outgrew her interest in the objects themselves, and she began to organize projects that involved the work of artisans from immigrant communities. Cabrera's Arbol de la Vida John Deere Model 790 is the result of a project involving the creation of a life-size replica of a John Deere tractor in clay, the "tree of life" for many workers in the agricultural community. Cabrera's cross-cultural perspective allows her artistic practice to involve the political, social and emotional aspects of two distinct, yet closely connected cultures. Cabrera lives and works in El Paso.