Gallery Purchase

Iruka Maria Toro’s paintings serve as a record of her life, as well as a collection of carefully considered formal innovations. They address her identity through associations and clues, rather than through traditional self-portraiture. Free to reimagine figurative image making, Toro paints and collages patterned flora, fauna, pools of water, and liquefying landscapes in an imperfectly symmetrical arrangement.

The World and Her Double was included in an exhibition at LaCa Projects entitled Strike a Match to Hear My Sound in which Toro explored her experience of St. Elmo’s Fire, a natural and supernatural phenomenon in which luminous plasma from static electricity creates a glowing light.

Van Every/Smith Galleries Blog, SEEN ON CAMPUS: IRUKA MARIA TORO, by Izzy Hernandez ‘25