About the Cover Artist

Born in Cataño, Puerto Rico, Maria Dominguez has had numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad. The artist has received important awards and honors during her twenty-year career in the visual arts. She has created fifteen public works, including murals. Dominguez' career of public art making, community murals, and private commissions have gained the respect of her contemporaries and other art professionals in New York City. Her award-winning work has been conceptualized both individually and collectively. Through a series of dialogues and photographic images, her efforts capture the true spirit of the chosen community.

In 2002, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York City commissioned El-Views. To create the exhibit, the Willet Stain Glass Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eloquently transformed sixteen of her original paintings into dazzling stain glass jewels. These were then permanently installed for the Chauncey Street elevated subway station along the J/Z lines in Brooklyn. In 2003, this same work, along with the work of sixteen other artists, received the prestigious Excellence in Design award from the New York Municipal Society. In 2006, along with fifteen other women, Dominguez completed When Women Pursue Justice, a 3,300-square-foot mural.

Solo exhibits of Dominguez' personal work include La Taza de Oro Restaurant and Gallery (New York, 2006), El Centro de Estudios Puertoriqueño, Hunter College (2005), and Brooklyn Central Library Main Gallery (2005). Her group exhibits include St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, New York (2006), Arte Antilles (New York, 2005), Picture That Gallery (Stamford, CT, 2005) and the UBS Art Gallery (New York, 2005). She has also been the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and she has garnered nominations to the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Award.

Dominguez is also an artist educator and has worked in well-respected institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's Learning through the Arts program, Studio in the Schools. She also headed El Museo del Barrio's Museum Education Department for seven years and is currently working for Young Audiences of New York.

2006