Mari Cardenas: Colores de Valor, curated by endy trece, presents a selection of prints and paintings from over 50 years of Mari's artistic practice. The exhibition demonstrates how she bravely explored her spectrum of color, form, and emotions as a strategy for creating her happiness in different ways, using what was available to her within a life of painful experiences and circumstances. Alongside Mari's work, silkscreen prints by her peers at Self Help Graphics & Art will be included in the exhibition to bring us into her world of friendships and art practice.

Mari is a legacy artist who found her creative home and supportive friends at SHG during a time when there was little access to the art world for women, especially women of color, later becoming part of the SHG staff. She shares, "We all had to start at our kitchen table, and Self Help Graphics provided the friendships I needed to go out in the world and be part of an artist community as an artist and worker."

Now in her nineties, Mari continues to paint even though she has experienced macular degeneration in her eyes for years and has been declared legally blind, not allowing anything to stop her colores de valor.

Mari Cardenas: Colores de Valor will remain on view from December 9, 2022-February 17, 2023. *Please note that the gallery will be closed for the holidays from December 24-January 8, 2022.