«My own history is that of being a woman who has come from a third world country after having fought oppression for such a longtime I very much identify with women victims of violence».
* «I had a lot of demons to fight of my very own...in order to allow myself the freedom to be the artist I am today».
* «For years, I have been confused as how to turn the images of my imagination and observation into finished works. For the longest time I have refused to settle for a complacent existence. I have been in constant motion, always moving, changing and chasing my fantasies, continuously reinventing my self. I have come to believe that dynamic change is one of the plus factors of contemporary existence».
* «My mission as an artist is to continue developing my vision and to find balance when great power and that vision come together (Ingrid Madera)».

Sculptor and mixed media artist INGRID MADERA, was born July 29, 1959 in the Dominican Republic. Just twenty years old and she escapes ...
She leaves her country, South America; with a back-pack and a bundle under her arm: her son , a little over a year. She goes to New York to « redeem» for both a great dream of freedom She studied performance and visual arts with interims during which she devoted herself to raising her son and to earning her livelihood. now lives in Calverton, NY.
From a basic human desire to know herself she creates sculpture. Education: Academia de Bellas Art, Art Students League, school of Visual Arts, Southampton College ARTIST IN RESIDENCE PROGRAM East End Arts Council, 1996, (Outline of project attached), GROUP EXHIBITIONS, Artist Space, 1995 - Taller Contemporanio de Arte, 1994 - Ashawag Hall, 1993 ARTIST AND HOMELESS COLLABORATIVE, 1992-1993, Public Art Project: Created on site projects with homeless women to motivate and inspire independence by cultivating self-expression. Her sculptures Her sculptures are bodies Bodies soaring, spread out , squatting, entangled, stretched out. Bodies and spirit Intense, suffering, calmed ... closed in themselves They are Life A weaving of dialogues, screams, pacts ... abandonment Ingrid provokes, disturbs, «hammers» - with rising force - everything and everyone She learned the right rules but refuses to be limited by their prudence She breaks with skillful touches: pregiudices, stereotypes, banalities, conformities.

Ingrid challenges every day, every hour the « Buena suerte» Her « medium» is toxic
She works with a gas-mask ...
Maybe because Ingrid is still at war ...
A war begun  a long time ago, in early childhood against public and private abuses of power.. The «stamp» of Ingrid Madera's work is thus unfortunately simple: a «titanic flight» of vital energy". Ingrid Madera does not go interpreted beyond.  Ingrid, in fact,  speaks about its work with wide breath and one precious ability to "autoanalisi"

How in the catalog of the show: Decumano 97 VERONAMERICA:

«The body always expresses the spirit whose envelope it is. I'm interested in expressing the awe and wonder of the human form. Volume is not the only spatial concept. Through investigations based on two elements, space and time, (time being light, time and light are one), I work to discover forms. I must remain faithful to nature, it is my only ambition. My reward is inspiration. The gap between subject and intelligent perception of subject has been one of the prevailing problems of making art. For years, I have been confused as how to turn the images of my imagination and observation into finished works. For the longest time I have refused to settle for a complacent existence. I have been in constant motion, always moving, changing and chasing my fantasies continuously reinventing my self. I have come to believe that dynamic change is one of the plus factors of contemporary existence. Our thoughts, wills and actions accord wíth laws as defiant as those which govern the motion of waves, the combinatìon of acids and bases, and the growth of plants and animals. When power and visions come together, even when using ordinary things to express ourselves, there's a sense of doing things right for their own sake. My mission as an artist is to continue developing my vision and to find balance when great power and that vision come together. What I attempted is to attain true understanding of things as they are, rather than overloading myself with ideas that become commentaries or interpretations. I chose to develop direct and simple appreciation, simple understanding without any criteria or strings attached. It is the only way for me. My way of connecting with the experience of the human condition».

and in  her installation  

«what I want, is to develop a direct and simple appreciation. true understanding of things as they are. what attracts me to abstract art is that most of it is about freedom. freedom from the cares of this world, from worldliness. it invites me to silent concentrative meditation. I have found a transcending sensation of freedom in abstract art.» «you can't make sculpture without involving your body. At the core of experiencing any identification between the work of art, and the body of the maker; one must become physically involved with full muscular consciousness. I'm not working to get approval, but because I want to express certain things. i think and believe that i must express my struggles and experiences. it is important to me to move through all those preconceptions about what one is supposed to be; as a woman, an artist, etc. etc.; and to deal with it in a visual way.» «I have an urgent need to strip my life down to what's essential. I have been trying to break everything down to its simplest form. it is for me the only way of connecting with the experience of the human condition. our thoughts, wills, and actions accord with law as defiant as those which govern the motion of waves, the combination of acids and bases, and the growth of plants and animals. many times it has been necessary for me to self-destruct in order for me to regenerate.»

From: Erica Lynn Gambino, «Ingrid Madera 'Crossings'» Oct., 1998 extracts

...«With works such as this, Madera, a Dominican expatriate, moves in a more Post Modern direction, appropriating imagery and content from her own religious past and the Hispanic-Afro-Cuban culture. She is inspired by myths of saints, witches, icons and gods shared collectively by Dominicans, Cubans and Puerto Ricans. Most she has said, are about promises and fulfillment of desires, a familiar theme in Latin American literature and art. For Madera, her culture is one filled with many crossroads and ambiguities, and it is the shrouded way in which she deals with her particular personal narratives that bring about its universal nature. The tenacity with which she deals with her media is the same that drives her to express the struggle that is inherent to being a woman from a third world country where womenhave traditionally fought oppression for so long» ...