In  Marina  Cruz’s  works,  both  the  method  of  display  and  the  individual  images  operate simultaneously  on  several  different  levels.  She  is  predisposed  in  each  exhibition  to  use  her  diverse collection  of  antique,  nominal,  and  semantic  material  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring  into  attention  some characteristic  of  painterly  representation.  The  astute  presentational  tactics;  the  devices  of  display and  the  source  of  her  imagery;  the  recollection  of  events  in  her  family  history  and  the  history  of  her depicted  objects,  pile  the  many  layers  in  Marina  Cruz  that  are  waiting  to  be  surfaced  and  understood. For  this  reason,  notwithstanding  her  intentionally  nostalgic  use  of  old  things  and  old  lives,  we suitably  recognize  Cruz’s  practice  as  a  meticulously  contemporary  one,  primarily  concerned  with  the conflicting  nature  of  the  painted  object  and  the  actual  event  behind  it:  the  visibility  and  invisibility of its  subject;  the  simultaneously  physical  and  yet  ethereal  nature  of  the  painted  image.  

There’s  a  flair  of a  simultaneously  tangible  but  untouchable  presence  felt  in  the  photographs  uncovered  by  Cruz  and her  grandmother  from  more  than  fifty  years  ago  which  serve  as  the  source  for  her  paintings.  She deals  with  the  stories  of  survival  and  recapture  of  the  dresses  of  her  twin  mother  and  aunt  which  she summons  in  her  exploration  of  the  life  and  after-­‐life  that  inhabits  these  objects.  Her  painting  process, like  one’s  memory,  is  often  faintly  trailed,  recognizable  under  her  elusive  lexis  of  portraiture.