New York-based Filipina artist Maria Madonna Davidoff has cast a net far and wide across unseen realms.
When Davidoff first arrived in New York, her unorthodox style snared the attention of Crane Publishing, which recognized her compelling grasp of applying depth to the seemingly mundane and translating literary imagery into visual form, and immediately put her abilities to use in the illustration of a children’s book. It was an auspicious kick-off to no less than a flourishing New York career.
Madonna, who took up Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines, was born and raised in the Philippines by her architect father Jose L. Angeles and writer mother Luzviminda Arsciwals Angeles (of the immortal Taliba and Liwayway). When she moved to New York in the ’80s, her inclination for the raw, rugged, unfettered form was sharpened, given impetus by the works of graffiti artist Keith Haring who lived in the same artists’ village that soon became her own “hometown.”
As a printmaking and painting student in the Arts Students League of New York, she started to develop her icons and symbols, so that images such as the sarimanok, fish and sun found their way into her creations. She mounted a one-woman show at the La Mama Galleria, Anthem Gallery in Soho; and group shows like the People’s Center of the Museum of Natural History in New York, among others in various venues and cities. Her artistic path has taken her through the United States, Europe and Asia, with exhibitions in the Fusion Arts Museum in New York City; Cedar Ridge Gallery in Toronto, Canada; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum in Japan; the Museum of Art and History, in Fribourg, Switzerland; and the Visconti Gallery in Paris, France, to name only a few.
Madonna recalls, “During those years in Europe, I sought comfort in the ethnographic images of my native country, which reminded me of my roots and affirmed my identity. In Fribourg, I was able to show in galleries like La Spirale, Stalden Gallery, Modern Art Gallery and The Fribourg Museum of Art & History. In one of the Swiss reviews, my art was considered exotic.” In the early ’90s, she returned to the United States where, she says, “I continue to draw upon my heritage as the fountainhead of my art.”
She has been reviewed by a Washington Post art critic who wrote, ”Of the 33 works on view at the Foundry Gallery, I liked Maria Madonna Davidoff’s mix-media scrolls” The Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), at its 4th Winter Conference, recognized this when it short-listed her work as among 15 finalists from 250 original artworks at its first-ever illustrators’ showcase and auction, the SCBWI New York Showcase in February 2003.
Currently, she does illustrations for Markus Wiener Publishers (an independent publisher of academic and trade books and journals in the area of World History). An exceptionally interesting and brilliant artwork was the cover design she did for the publisher’s world history book by author Kevin Reilly. Released in January of 2003, it placed old Intramuros on the cover of Reilly’s The West and the World (A History of Civilization, 1400 to the Present) — the only World History textbook with a topical instead of the standard chronological approach.
She has found a kindred spirit in Filipino writer (who likewise is steadily gaining laurels in a foreign country and was the recipient of her excellent artistry) Edessa Ramos (author of In A Quiet Place), who says, “I can say a lot about the consummate artist that she (Madonna) is, her grace as a woman and her generosity as a human being, her achievements as a mother, a life-partner, a friend. But words will fail me should I attempt to continue. Let her paintings speak for her, and for all of us who long to stay connected to that inner self.”
Still Madonna is constantly re-inventing herself, yet successfully maintaining her own identity as an artist and as an individual. Indeed, Madonna, in the very competitive and incessantly evolving art world, is a passionately committed and focused universal artist.
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Artist Madonna is married to Bart Davidoff, product development manager for Hewlett Packard Asia Pacific. They met through Bart’s mom Muriel Davidoff, a fellow artist. Their daughter Bianca Marmy is 21 years old, majoring in International Studies in University of Tampa Florida.