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the artist
about me
I am a Colombian artist based in Switzerland… for now.
There’s some truth in the definition of «millennials», because being in my thirties, I have lived in 3 countries and I know that I will live in others, I speak 3 languages and I’m currently learning the fourth, I’ve been a writer and copywriter without having studied journalism or advertising, have published two coloring books although I’m not a graphic designer and I’m a painter without having studied arts.
Actually, I’m an industrial designer and marketing specialist, and although I’ve also worked in these areas, I have always fiercely targeted my passions, which evidently have their deepest roots in art, be it in literature or painting.
My fascination with history, culture and politics has resulted in the soul of my art, while the rebelliousness of Pop Art, as well as the vibrancy of color of this movement, has defined my creative style.
I’m captivated by popular culture from any corner of the world and ‘im an insatiable music lover, which is why I slide naturally between heavy rock, classical music, salsa, jazz, tango, reggaeton and almost every musical genre that exists. Eclecticism is part of my personality: sometimes contradictory, sometimes incendiary, but always critical and humane. I do feel like a sponge that cannot stop absorbing, learning, understanding, feeling, thinking.
This is why I love to travel. And this is why I always say that although I have left a bit of my soul in each country that I have visited, I’ve refilled my heart with a little bit of the collective spirit of each of those places, too.
And so, I like to think that I’m a citizen of the world, even though unfriendly walls are erected in order to dissuade me from such a utopia. It doesn’t matter, because reality is, souls are ethereal … there is no wall that can contain them.
my little
rebellion
When I seriously started flirting with art, I was hugely disappointed in the status quo of the industry.
There is a saying in the French language that goes “c’est triste la vie d’artiste”. And how true is this. As I began to show my work publicly, several galleries contacted me to exhibit my work. Some of them asked me considerable sums of money for a single piece to exhibit, together with at least 200 other artists.
At first, I saw galleries as an absolutely fundamental point to be successful as an artist. But then I realized that thousands and thousands of artists empty their pockets trying to exhibit their work without getting practically any visibility, in order to put on their CV that this or that gallery has exhibited their work and thus be able to add some value to their work.
If they do not exhibit in galleries, artists must sell their works for alms, but if they exhibit in galleries, they must pay a huge fee for each piece, or give a percentage that can sometimes reach 80%, and finally, sell to lost.
That is why the artist has that prototypical stigma of a somewhat frustrated bohemian who’s always short of money. Very few manage to live off their talent.
It is my opinion that things have to change. I think that the establishment is not working properly, and I think that it is not the art industry that has the last word regarding the value of art, but rather the consumer, the viewer.
Due to the establishment, the consumption of “fine art” has been hugely limited to a snobbish elite that appreciates art according to its price and not according to its conceptual or even aesthetic value, although the latter is completely subjective. If the establishment were infallible, then Van Gogh-among others-would not have died in absolute misery.
That is why I decided to focus my career as a business and not let myself be absorbed by the romanticism of the artists who fight and take the bread from their mouth to be able to buy their paints and then exhibit and sell their works at a loss.
Obviously, this does not mean that I will not exhibit my works publicly in other establishments or galleries. I will of course do this when win-win opportunities come my way as with any other business transaction. Actually, as I write this, my first collection is on display.
But I refuse to fall into the status quo game that has exploited artists for centuries, and I refuse to sell the soul of my art to fit in with an elite that never fully accepted artists like Basquiat and even his friend Warhol.
Art is a gift to humanity, and it is also a job. Artists need to be treated with dignity in the industry that they supply.