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18 printmakers from Medellín, Colombia exhibited at the Bronx River Art Center in New York

Updated: Apr 30, 2021


For the first show of the new year, the Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) in New York City , directed by Gail Nathan, hosted Beyond the “Encuentro,” an art exhibition of Colombian printmakers.

For more than five centuries printmaking has had an artistic tradition in the West. In Colombia this technique dates from the mid-1800s. It was during the 70's when it became popular as it grew into a brand instrument for state institutions.

In Medellin, printmaking techniques that include woodcut, etching, engraving, and lithography among others, became a new discovery in the 60’s when artists saw in some of these tools used in Europe a new way to innovate in the art world. In the 80’s printmaking became a trend and most artists used it to publicize or advertise their work.

Today printmaking is having a new phase, and the exhibit showed the talent and determination of Colombian printmakers that are using the technique to innovate and reflect on our reality.

According to the curator of the exhibition, renowned Colombian artist Felix Angel, “the meaning of the exhibit cannot be underestimated, especially in a moment in which the entire world battles a pandemic emergency and other long unsolved challenges. To have a group of printmakers from Medellin, Colombia exhibiting in New York, one -if not the most important- world center of the arts speaks volumes about the creativity and strength of Colombian artists. Their determination and self confidence in leveling their work with thousand others from every corner of the planet shows what Colombians are really made of”.

Angel hopes to keep bringing more attention to the art of printmaking in his home country so the artists can continue working using their uniqueness and talent to leave a Colombian mark in the art world.


The exhibit will make us “reflect on common human concerns; reminds us about the universality of the arts and the multidimensionality of graphics which, in turn, reflect the complexity and diversity of visual creativity, the triumph of the imagination, the anxieties of life’s unpredictability, and the accomplishments of humanity at large, as well as those of the regular individual” says Angel.

The exhibition, drawn from a 2018 display in Medellin and a later event in Washington DC in January of 2020, created by Angel, consists of a series of works by a range of artists that vary in age, style and technique.

For those who attended the show it will be clear that each artist uses their own artistry and pure Colombian talent.

The artists participating in the exhibit were Diego Arango, Álvaro Botero Gallego, Juan Ernesto Correa, Male Correa, Ana Fernández, Hernando Guerrero, Armando Londoño Gómez, María López, Carlos Marín, Camila Maya Monsalve, Luis Fernando Mejía Jaramillo (+), Victoria Ortiz, Julio Sampedro Longas, Fabián Rendón (+), Jorge Rodríguez, Luis Fernando Uribe, Mónica Lorenza Taborda, Mónica Lorenza Taborda, Luis Fernando Uribe and Jessica Sánchez.



About Felix Angel

Felix Angel is an accomplished artist, who has developed his activity in multiple fields of culture. He was curator of temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Art of the Americas (OEA), director and curator of the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and Commissioner for the Arts and Humanities of the City of Washington, deserving the award from the Mayor's Office from Washington for "Visionary Leadership of the Arts." Graduated from the School of Architecture of the National University of Colombia in 1974, Angel has received numerous distinctions and participated in more than 500 international exhibitions, 100 of them individual. He has also published eight books on art, novels, short stories and poetry. The city of Medellín has 7 public murals of his, and Pereira with one.
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