THREADS OF LIFE

María Berrío weaves a love of mythology and folklore into her Japanese-paper collages to create parallel worlds that are both fantastical and familiar

- HANNAH SILVER

In the work of New York-based Colombian artist María Berrío, nothing is quite as it seems.

Otherworldly tales are part myth, part memory, delicately rendered in watercolour on Japanese paper. Her paintings are unexpectedly rife with familiar and contemporary detailing, in a meeting of worlds real and imagined.

It is a style that is reflective of Berrío herself. Growing up in Bogotá, she spent much of her time on a family farm, triggering the love of nature and storytelling she was to build on later. Beginning first by drawing large-scale works in charcoal - 'it was a way of connecting me to the world,' she says - Berrío became fascinated with Japanese paper, using it to create collages. In the physical and symbolic act of layering, collage makes a natural medium from which to explore the intersection of past and present.

'I grew up with legends and myths in Colombia, and this fascination with the magical realism of my culture started in childhood,' says the artist. 'This fantastical way of seeing the world is always with me.'