ARTBO Celebrates 20 Years of Colombian Art

I was transfixed by Eblin Grueso’s three-channel video. It features a performative gesture of men carrying what appears to be a coffin made of concrete. They arrive at a final destination, and a figure is broken out of the concrete encasement. It’s very powerful and culminates in a group of people singing, along with the figure who has broken free. The object is included in the installation.

This painting by Pedro Ruiz is quite small, but it caught my eye due to the bright red color and polished gold frame. At first glance, the red could look like a splatter of blood. But upon closer inspection, it is a group of intricately detailed roses, a moment of explicit beauty. The lone figure on the boat stands, pole erect, making his way somewhere only the artist knows. 

The works by artist Venuca Evanan (of which there were several in the booth) all have a traditional aesthetic that is actually quite powerful (and even comical), as well as contemporary. This piece, Autorretrato erótico (Erotic self-portrait), exhibits the joys of sex through what we can assume by the title is the artist and her partner. What I like about the work is that the woman is given agency. The paintings are set up like a comic strip, with a simultaneous narrative running throughout– a visual love story. 

Zona de derrumbes (Landslide zone) is the artist’s inquiry into natural events that occurred along the road that stretches between Bogotá and Villavicencio (two Colombian cities). The artist highlights what it means to build roads and the double entendre of access and destruction. She sees the removal of land as a scarification of sorts, that even in the face of ‘progress,’ things are left behind. 

Juan Pablo Echeverri was an artist based in Bogotá who I’d crossed paths with on my visits to the city over the years. I was sad to hear of his recent passing from Malaria when on a trip to Nigeria working for Wolfgang Tillmans. The artist was known for making self-portraits, performing various characters that somehow still always remained a part of who he was. 

I only became aware of Delcy Morelos’ work this past year after she exhibited two large-scale sculptural works at the DIA Center in New York. Her newer work is expansive and quite tactile in choice of mediums (along with a scent component). 

I was happy to see this older work of hers, En la trama personal (In the personal plot), curated by Pablo de La Barra and Maria Wills in a section of the fair that celebrated Colombian galleries that no longer exist. This section brought together artists who had been shown with these galleries from various collections as a living archive and record of the paths that had been paved leading up to the fair.  

This painting by Julián Burgos jumped out at me because of the complexities of dog heads in the frame and how even with a Mannerist composition, they somehow still make sense. I also love dogs. 

For this performative video work, artist Angie Rengifo reads words from the encyclopedia that begin with the letter “Y.” She uses a voice recognition software that generates images that appear behind (a screen within a screen). The software only understood the word Yo (I) perfectly, but other words were not-so-accurately visually translated. The consistent tone of the artist’s voice was soothing, but also intriguing, as “Y” is used so differently in the Spanish language than it is in English. 

This installation, Tierra alta, marea firme (high ground, firm tide), featured two sets of stairs linked centrally, forming a pyramid. Underneath was a pile of sand, and a bellows was placed on every stair. So, one could imagine that each step would, in turn, blow air and sand away from the pile. The piece was not only eye-catching, but also a reminder to the sensitivity of land and natural resources that are so often misused and taken away.