Poli Marichal

She is also celebrated as one of the first experimental filmmakers in Puerto Rico, starting this pursuit in the mid-1980s. Marichal has also taught printmaking classes in New York City and California. Some of her awards include the Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship and a New Works Grant from the Massachusetts Council for the Arts.

• Name — Poli Marichal • Born — 1 February 1955 • Birthplace — Ponce, Puerto Rico • Education — Escola Massana (Barcelona); Escuela de Artes Plásticas (San Juan); Massachusetts College of Art and Design • Known for — Painting, printmaking, filmmaking • Notable Works — Underwater Blues, Al Rojo Vivo, Guernica, Blues Tropical, Coffee Break • Movement — Experimental film, Caribbean visual arts • Parents — Carlos Marichal • Awards — Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship, New Works Grant (Massachusetts Council for the Arts)

Poli Marichal completed a two-year exchange at the Escola Massana in Barcelona (1976) and received a Bachelor's degree in Art with a concentration in Printmaking from Escuela de Artes Plásticas in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1978), and a Master's degree in Art from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (1982).

• Underwater Blues (1981), "Hand painted, scratched animated Super 8 film examining the contradictions of the psychopathology of colonization." • Al Rojo Vivo (1982), "This work recreates the spirit of frustration and is the result of scratching and painting the tiny super 8 mm frame without magnification. The soundtrack was performed with a percussion instrument and voice." • Guernica (1982), "Experimental Super 8 film featuring animated 3-D puppets based on the characters in Picasso’s painting." • Blues Tropical (1983), "First part of the Trilogy of the Island in which Poli Marichal expresses and vents the anger and frustration caused by the colonial situation." • Isla Postal (1984), "Hand painted, scratched Super 8 film meditating on Puerto Rico’s political status through the layering of traditional Bomba music and governmental speeches." • Coffee Break (1987), "Experimental film which incorporates a range of materials, ink, coloring pencils, watercolors, and graphite, to narrate the story of a woman who is transformed into a cat while she drinks the celebrated beverage of the island, coffee." • Los espejísmos de Mandrágora Luna (1987). • Son Africaribeño (1995).

• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California • Smithsonian American Art Museum • Mexican Fine Arts Museum, Chicago, Illinois • Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba • The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan, Puerto Rico • Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico • The University of Puerto Rico Museum of Anthropology, History and Art, Puerto Rico • Institute for Latino Studies University of Notre Dame, Indiana • Galería Sin Fronteras, Austin, Texas • The Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas • The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, New York • Donald C. Davidson Library at the University of Santa Barbara • Vincent Price Art Museum, California • Laguna Art Museum, Orange County Art Museum, California • Huntington Museum, University of Texas, Austin, Texas • Colección Reyes-Veray, San Juan, Puerto Rico