Mai Blanco
I Crave To Be All
New York | SoHo
April 2 – May 9, 2025
Motherhood is a profound awakening—a quiet storm that reshapes the soul, a transformation as boundless as love itself. Since giving birth, Mai Blanco has felt an even stronger pull toward nature, a search for an instinctive grounding force in an ever-changing, tumultuous world. As life accelerates throughout adulthood, it also pauses abruptly giving birth, revealing what truly matters. In moments of disorientation, where she describes herself as “a disintegrating body dissolving into the void,” she follows a primal urge that draws her back to the earth. There, her need for stability and support is effortlessly met by soil, water, rock, and plants.
Blanco’s bond with nature has deepened like roots seeking the earth, growing stronger with the tides of motherhood. This bond is at the heart of I Crave To Be All. As in life, her practice becomes a search for anchor points and steady ground amidst the shifting currents of reality. Painting becomes a means of organizing emotions which are confused and often contradictory, and, when fortunate, uncovering the roots of these feelings in a world that grows increasingly complex and uncertain. The character in Drowning, seemingly losing the struggle to stay afloat, is a striking example of this tension.
Society and our immediate surroundings impose demands and expectations, sometimes with grace, other times with an iron fist. A relentless logic of desire governs modern life, and stepping away from the rat race is paradoxically seen as personal failure. Quantitative measures often overshadow qualitative strengths, fostering dissatisfaction and anxiety.
The title I Crave To Be All reflects the internal conflicts we navigate. Life is in constant motion, defined by birth, transformation, change, and mourning. Conflict and struggle are inevitable, yet Blanco counters them with hope and love, allowing tenderness to prevail. Viewing the world through a child’s eyes, those filled with wonder, awe, and pure intention, becomes an invaluable perspective.
Her lush, sensual color palette evokes echoes of Cecily Brown’s work, with who Blanco shares an interest in desire, excess, and decay, as well as the enduring influence of Old Masters. The fresco-like quality of Blanco’s paintings, reminiscent of Botticelli’s flowing elegance, imbues her figures with a timeless, universal humanity.
The female form is at the forefront of I Crave To Be All, depicted with both strength and grace. Blanco’s experience of motherhood resonates visibly in the breastfeeding figure on one canvas, and in hands that tenderly yet firmly embrace the body on another. Each artwork captures the essence of human existence, weaving it through the quiet transcendence of simply being. Mai Blanco’s natural world remains an inexhaustible well of primordial beauty.
Mai Blanco (b. 1982; lives and works in Barcelona, ES). Blanco studied at Barcelona Fine Arts University and the Oviedo School of the Arts, ES. She has had recent solo exhibitions with Fundación La Nave Salinas, Illes Balears, ES; Miscellanea, Barcelona, ES; and Cage Gallery, Barcelona, ES. Her recent group exhibitions have been with L21 Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, ES; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US; The M Building, Miami, FL, US; and Gunter Gallery, Madrid, ES.