MARITZA RANERO:
Here, There, Present

Z’M Projects is pleased to present Here, There, Present, a solo-exhibition with Hyde Park-based artist Maritza Ranero. This will be the artist’s first gallery solo exhibition in over twenty years. Here, There, Present features paintings from various bodies of work the artist has produced over many years. The exhibition will be on view from February 6 - March 21, 2026, with an opening reception on Friday, February 6th from 5:30 - 8 pm. 

Ranero was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. Her mother, Mariana, and her father, Luis, relocated from Puerto Rico to New York City to work in manufacturing. Her mother made quilts and bedding and her father worked in a cardboard box factory. Often, her mother brought home discarded materials from the factory—bobbins of thread, sewing needles, and quilts that failed inspection. These are known as factory seconds. Ranero grew up cherishing these flawed objects, captivated by their glitches and irregularities.

These early encounters with imperfection shaped the artist’s lifelong ability to locate humanity within the irregular. Sustaining a rigorous studio practice since 1982, Ranero has developed a body of work grounded in experimentation, process, and the embrace of unpredictability. Her paintings often begin without a predetermined image, emerging instead through the physical act of painting itself. Using her hands alongside rubber spatulas, combs, and sponges, she pours, scrapes, pushes, and presses layers of enamel and ink until forms begin to surface. Traces of underlying material remain visible, staining the surface beneath thick, opaque stripes and milky washes. Though rooted in abstraction, these compositions frequently resolve into portraits or human heads, echoing the Catholic iconography, baby photographs, graduation portraits, and wedding pictures that filled her childhood home.

Alongside her Catholic upbringing, Ranero came of age in New York City amid influential figures of the Golden Age of disco, punk, and salsa ballroom clubs. Her life and work exist at the intersection of these worlds, blending religious structure with the experimentation, freedom, and resilience of someone born between two dominant cultures. 

Ranero’s techniques evolve in response to pivotal moments in her life. In The Grief Series and The Mariana Series, she confronts the deaths of her parents from Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and Alzheimer’s, exploring grief, loss, and the complexities of familial relationships. In these works, she carves into wet paint with silicone combs in confident, sweeping gestures. At times the paint remains parted; elsewhere it seeps back into the incisions, blurring boundaries and reflecting the uncertainty of moving forward through loss. Resisting perfection, Ranero allows vulnerability to remain visible. Her paintings ultimately demonstrate a profound trust in material, process, and the power of welcomed unpredictability.