Iruka Maria Toro's paintings, collages and photographs imply movement and change. They serve as both a record of the artist's life, and as a catalogue of carefully considered formal innovations. These works deal with identity not through traditional self portraiture, but through a rich constellation of associations and clues. Free to reimagine figurative image making, the artist paints dissolving landscapes, pools of water, beloved objects, psychedelic flora, and often her own body with a spirit of force and deep devotion to detail. The macroscopic and the microscopic aspects of the floating world, and the material world are always merging and mirroring each other; in a series of infinite and complex undulations, streams, and patterns.

Iruka Maria Toro was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and has been creating and exhibiting her work on a wide scale for over ten years. During this time, she has received many honors including a grant from the New York Council for the Arts and a prestigious Painting Fellowship from The New York Foundation of the Arts. She has had exhibitions in New York, Boston, Tokyo, and Mexico. Most recently, Toro participated in “Epochal Aeration, or, The Slow Hand”, a group exhibition curated by Trinie Dalton.  She was also one of the artists selected to be part of the creative workshops that accompanied the exhibition “Run Prayer, Run Café, Run Library” by Whitney Biennial artist, Susan Cianciolo.  

Iruka also developed a monograph which surveys her most recent work. The catalogue includes writings and poems by art luminaries Trinie Dalton, Susan Cianciolo and Kiki Smith. Toro's work may be found in the collections of the Dana Farber Institute in Boston, HPFRANCE Tokyo, The Mint Museum in Charlotte, and the United States Art in Embassies Program. She lives and works in upstate New York.