Maru in the studio photo credit: Francisco Ramos

Maru Aponte’s research explores the ecological, cultural, and psychological aspects of water. Working between Houston, Canada, and Puerto Rico, drafting sketches en plein air on the island as starting point. By using color and light as phenomenological tools, they reframe the landscape through a diasporic experience and Caribbean identity. Her paintings challenge traditional notions of watercolor, embracing its fluidity to explore the physicality of memory—often creating large-format works that allow viewers to walk around memory as if it were spatial terrain. 
Aponte’s practice unfolds through water—not merely as subject, but as an active collaborator. She explores conditional spaces in her work, using expanded painting to construct large-scale paper sculptures that function simultaneously as background, spatial depth, and shape. Her project The Sea is a House, created and presented at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario in June 2025, explores memory as a water-based structure that invites viewers to walk through a language of waves and torn edges.  Aponte graduated with an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver in 2023. Previously, she graduated from the Painting Department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Aponte was the 2023 Emily Carr Fellowship Resident at Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver and recently was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture 2024 and the Artist in residence at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto in 2025.

Vancouver, Canada
​Houston, Texas
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
[email protected]
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CV

Education
MFA, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                                       2023
Concentration: Fine Arts
 
BFA, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium                                           2020
Concentration: Painting
Cum laude
 
Art Residencies & Fellowships
San Juan 721 Residency, Santurce, Puerto Rico                                                                      2026                                                                                                                                                                                                  
     (upcoming: May)
AGO X RBC Artist-in-Residence, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada                            2025
 
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, Maine                                        2024
 
Griffin X ECU Fellowship, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada                                       2023   
 
Solo Exhibitions
The Sea is a House, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada                                               2025
MagicMaria, Towards Gallery, Toronto, Canada                                                                    2025
Moontalker, Galería Agustina Ferreyra, Mexico City, Mexico                                               2024
Salt Stains, Pale Fire, Vancouver, Canada                                                                                2024
Con mil ojos de espuma, Souvenir 154, San Juan, Puerto Rico                                             2023
Lo que sueñan los pájaros, Embajada, San Juan, Puerto Rico                                               2022
Mi casa es tu Casa, About Art, Antwerp, Belgium                                                                   2021
Group Exhibitions
Group show,Toronto Art Fair, Towards Gallery, Toronto, Canada                                      2025 
Combine Art Fair, Griffin Art Project, Vancouver, Canada                                                   2023   
Griffin x ECU Studio Award, Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada                                   2023  
Casting Shadows, Trapp Projects, Vancouver, Canada                                                          2023  
Responding to Climate Through Art and Design, ECU, Vancouver, Canada                          2023  
MFA Thesis Show, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada                                               2023  
State of Practice, Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada                                                2022  
Klein is Groot, 4n20 Ruimte voor Kunst, Kortrijk, Belgium                                                    2020  
Meat Me, Slachthuislaan 70, Antwerp, Belgium                                                                     2020  
Tangier, Tick Tack Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium                                                                         2020  
10 x 1, The Ivory Tower Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium                                                               2020  
GIFC WORLD WIDE, The Hole, New York City, New York                                                   2020
Awards
Griffin X ECU Studio Award             
            Griffin Art Project and Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
                                                                                                                                                     2023
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                                           2023
Press 
Ceremony Community, Conversation with Maru Aponte                                                    2025
Foyer, Maru Aponte on Pushing the Boundaries on Watercolour               
Relieve Contemporáneo, MoonTalker texto por Octavio Gómez Rivero                          2024
Peripheral Review, The Earthen Ocean: Maru Aponte at Pale Fire                                                                    
Trapp project, Casting Shadows                                                                                              2023
Lectures, Workshops, and Talks
The Figure + The Body undergraduate course, Professor                                                   2026
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                                 (upcoming: Jan-Apr)
  
Visiting Artist, Artist Talk and master’s student studio visits                                             2025
University of Houston, Houston, Texas                                                                         
 
Curator Talk with Emerging Latinx Artist, Artist Talk                                                           2025
Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Toronto, Canada
 
The Sea is a House: Workshops, paper-making workshops                                              2025
AGO Youth, Toronto, Canada                 
 
Art Forums Talks, Artist Talk and undergraduate’s studio visits                                      2024
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                   
 
Drawing For Painting undergraduate course, Professor                                                  2024
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
 
From the studio, Artist Talk                                                                                                   2023
Griffin Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada
 
Painting: Materials + Processes undergraduate course, Professor                                 2023
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                                                    
 
Drawing for Painting undergraduate course, Professor                                                  2023
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada                                  
                                      
Senior Studio (Interdisciplinary) undergraduate course, Teaching Assistant                2022
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
                                      
Painting: The Figure + the Body undergraduate course, Teaching Assistant                2022
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
                                    
MFA Low-Residency Community Liaison                                                                          2022
Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada


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