In the 1990s, Campos-Pons explored her ancestral Yoruba and Chinese roots and the Santería tradition carried over by her Yoruba family members. Santería is a spiritual practice which was developed by African slaves in Cuba by combining influences from Yoruba and Roman Catholic religious systems. Santería is often referred to as a „woman’s religion“ as it is a religion shaped by women and practiced largely by women. The Seven Powers Come by the Sea (1992) and The Seven Powers (1994) are installations that address slavery and make mention of various Yoruba gods and goddesses. Campos-Pons’ work investigates „a felt history,“ through the intersection of „non-spoken narratives“ and „resilient culture“.

In the mid-nineties, she started using large-format photographs which were often arranged into diptychs, triptychs or other configurations. In the early 2000s, Campos-Pons returned to elements of abstraction and minimalism that were reminiscent of her early work, and admittedly influenced by her Cuban professor Antonio Vidal.

According to Campos-Pons‘ artist statement, her work „renders elements of personal history and persona” that have universal relevance. Campos-Pons says: „Of merging ideas, merging of ethnicities, merging of traditions… I am as much black, Cuban, woman, Chinese. I am this tapestry of all of that, and the responses to that could be very complicated and could include even anguish and pain.“

María Magdalena Campos-Pons‘ works have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Whitney Museum, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, among others. She has also presented her pieces at events and venues around the world including the Guangzhou Triennial, Dak’Art, the Venice Biennial, the Havana Biennial, the Sharjah Biennial, the Johannesburg Biennial, and the Diriyah Biennial. Her most recent retrospective exhibition „Behold“ opened in 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum and moved to a national tour at the Nasher Museum and the First Museum, making its final stop at the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2025. Campos-Pons’ works are in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Canada, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, the Miami Art Museum and the Fogg Art Museum, the Ludwig Stiftung in Aachen, among other private and public ones. She has been awarded multiple prizes such as the prestigious McArthur Genius Fellowship in 2023 and the Pérez Prize in 2021.

Campos-Pons founded the projects „Intermittent Rivers“ in Matanzas, Cuba, and „Engine for Art Democracy and Justice“ at Vanderbilt with Vanderbilt and Frist University, where she is currently the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Fine Arts. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee.