Mateca

Teresa Caro Ottens’ biography (a.k.a. MATECA) 

Canadian-Argentinean photographer, painter, sculptress, videographer and cultural producer, who works in different design and art related campaigns, organising and curating events, using photography as an important communication tool. In December 2022 she received a certificate of artistic achievement, awarded by the Luxembourg Pinacotheque, the Museums selection committee.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and also artistically known as MATECA, an acrostic of her maiden name, Maria Teresa Caro. She is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design and spent a year at OCAD’ s Florence campus in Italy, studying Art History, Drawing and Painting. Toronto/ Oakville is her home since 1985. She has also lived in The Netherlands, Thailand and Venezuela, and feels privileged to belong to a diversity of cultures finding inspiration in all of them. Over the years she has focused on producing works in series: “The world around me”, “Protect Your Heart“,“The Tango series”, “ De Norte a Sur, “Intimacies”, “Oceans of Turquoise”, “Homage to the Group of Seven”, etc. She is currently working on a series of photographs and multimedia pieces supported with photography, drawings, paintings, sculptures and videos. 

She was responsible for the direction of Visual Arts for the Cultural Celebration of Spanish as a language (CCEI), the curatorial of the Colombian travelling exhibition of the United Nations in Canada. Also the presentations of exhibitions at Harbourfront-Centre, where she produced and directed the work: “Cono Sur”, (South Cone), a large ceramic mural, now part of the collection/ archives of Toronto’s City Hall. In recent years she participated in: ’What did you bring’, collective exhibition at the Hittite Gallery in Yorkville, and York University. She presented works from her Tango series at Art Metropol Miami, during Art Basel, Florida,  2018. Her work has been showcased locally and internationally. In Buenos Aires at the Centro Cultural San Martin, Casa de San Luis and the University of Buenos Aires, amongst others.

In 1987 she founded Mateca Productions Inc. through which she produced events, festivals, musicians and visual artists from Latin America in Canada, working with celebrities such as Mercedes Sosa, presented at Roy Thomson Hall, NG La Banda, Mayra Caridad Valdes, at Harbourfront-Centre, and Canada’s Wonderland, Adrian Iaies, at the Isabel Bader Theatre, UofT. Also worked in cooperation with other festivals across Canada.

One of the highlights of her career was the production and direction of the Mateca Arts Festival, at the University of Toronto, Victoria College, emphasising works in art, science and technology. A multi-arts festival, including visual arts, performances and music, 2014., with representatives of universities from both Argentina and Canada. The festival was “Diversity”, and the theme was “ Earth and Water”. A highlight of the festival was the welcoming ceremony from Six Nations Women, to the Mapuche artists of South America. 

Teresa was twice the recipient of the Volunteers Ontario Service Award 2018, for her work with the Broad Reach Foundation, an organisation that teaches leadership to youth from marginal communities (ages 12- 24), through the mastery of sailing. 

The subject in her photographs document her passions and love for art, horses, sailing, the environment and Tango, as part of her roots and heritage. In 2000/2001 she was featured in the book “Canada at the Millenium”, A Transcultural Society, a book about the contributors to Canadian Heritage, Heirloom Publishing Inc., volume 7. At the time she produced a clay mural, “Cono Sur”, for a festival at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. For this production she included five other artists. The work is part of the Toronto city archives collection and hangs over the years, in central areas of Counsellors offices at City Hall. 

As an advocate and activist of Heritage and Multiculturalism, she founded the International Women’ s Association of Toronto, in 1988, 36 years ago. The group includes women from different continents and nationalities, it holds ten annual programs honouring and reflecting the diversity and cultural mosaic that Canada is. Events run from September to June yearly. As an event and community catalyst, Teresa frequently gives workshops on how to use art as therapy and to work in art collectively as a community, taking pride in our own roots, while sharing our different cultures. As a consequence, becoming a part of many worlds, creating new spaces, allowing growth and a better understanding of one another, hoping that by doing so we are opening the road for a better world for future generations. 

Mateca was the producer/organiser of the trip of the Power Plant, Museum of Contemporary Art, Harbourfront-Centre, from Toronto to Buenos Aires, arranging a back to back agenda for the Museum and its Patrons. Visits included major artists private studios, universities, private and public collections, interacting with highly influential international curators. For over 40 years she has organised and curated art events, building cultural bridges and using photography as an important tool to document the path of all those passions. 

EXHIBITIONS 

2024 - Current photography exhibition. May 18 - September 6. Queen Elizabeth community and cultural centre Oakville. Solo exhibition. “ The world around me”

2022 - Certificate of Artistic Achievement, Luxembourg Pinacoteque, awarded by the Museum selection committee. 

2018- Art Metropol, Art Basel, Miami, Florida
- Gallery Hittite, Yorkville, Toronto
- What did you bring, York University, Toronto 

2015- Alumni Hall, Victoria College, University of Toronto Artist’ s studio exhibit, Toronto 

- Artist’ s studio exhibit, Toronto
- Frame Arts Miami Gallery, Miami, Florida 

-Flower series, La Compania, Toronto 

2000 - Artist ‘ s studio exhibit, Toronto 

1999 - Tango & Passion, Universidad Technologica, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

1998 - Toronto Design Centre, Toronto 

1997 - Homages Exhibit, homage to the Group of Seven Centro Cultural San Martin, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

- Tango series show, Manzione Gallery, Uruguay 

1996 -De Norte a Sur, (From North to South),
- The House of San Luis, Government Cultural Centre, Buenos Aires, Argentina 

1995 - Cono Sur, (South Cone), City Hall, Toronto
- Cono Sur, (South Cone), Harbourfront - Centre, Toronto - Sculpture collection, 

1994 - The Hispanic Latin Mozaic, Ryerson Polytechnic Institute
- CCIE Visual Art, Harbourfront Centre, Community Gallery, Toronto 

- Magnotta Winery, with artist Olivero Toscani, Joseph D. Carrier Art Gallery Columbus Centre, Toronto 

-The Self Representing, Mirror Mirror, Women’ s Art Collective, OCAD, Toronto 

1994 - Women’ s Painting Collective, McGill Club, Toronto
- Oceans of Turquoise, Exhibition at the Ministry of Education, Toronto 

1993 ICONA, The Canadian Cultural Centre, Rome, Italy 

Multicultural Canada In Florence, Cultural Centre Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Italy 

1992- Ryerson Polytechnic Institute, Salon OLB

- Toronto Indigo Art Exhibit, York University, Toronto 

- Intimacies Exhibit, Blue Monkey Cafe, Toronto