Carlos Jacanamijoy
"I draw upon the way of viewing life that we all as human beings have as children ... when you get given a single colour and you want to become yourself through it."
Jacanamijoy's works evoke a deep connection to the memories, heritages, and environments which shape us. Drawing from his background as a member of the Indigenous Inga people of Colombia, Jacanamijoy mobilizes the western oil painting tradition in a novel way, intertwining his own unique themes and transforming the medium into something which is distinctly his own. Confronting the presumptions around indigenous art and using his works to formulate a dialogue between western and indigenous cultures. Jacanamijoy's works are distinctly his own, but are intrinsically tied with a message of unity and the universal experiences which mould and bring us together.
Jacanamijoy's art has been exhibited extensively throughout Central, South and North America, as well as Europe. In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art in Bogota presented a retrospective of the artist's works. Recent and notable exhibitions include 'Holes in the Wind' at Toluca Modern Art Museum in 2018; 'Originaire' at the Gare de Marlon Galerie in Paris in 2015; a solo show at the Sandra Higgins Fine Art in London, 2014; he was exhibited at the United Nations in 2003. He has also been included in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C and New York, at the Casa de America in Madrid, Spain, and the La Tertulia de Cali Museum, Colombia, among others.
Carlos Jacanamijoy (b.1964, Santiago) depicts vivid, colour-saturated and abstract landscapes that emphasise the respect for heritage, memory and environment that he was taught as a Colombian indigenous of the Inga people. While his paintings are made abiding by the western method of oil on canvas, his thematics explore the ways of seeing and perceiving of the Ingas and other indigenous cultures. Although abstract at first glance, his creations hold many discreet figurative elements from which the viewer, with the help of a guide to their meaning, can understand a story. Jacanamijoy uses painting as a way to resist the
presumption that people from indigenous descent should only produce objects of folkloric
and artisanal value. With his work, the artist seeks to give visibility to these cultures,
restoring their sense of belonging, making them observable and comprehensible to westerners and linking western and indigenous cultures together.
Jacanamijoy's art has been exhibited extensively throughout Central, South and North America, as well as Europe. In 2013, the Museum of Modern Art in Bogota presented a retrospective of the artist's works. Recent and notable exhibitions include 'Holes in the Wind' at Toluca Modern Art Museum in 2018; 'Originaire' at the Gare de Marlon Galerie in Paris in 2015; a solo show at the Sandra Higgins Fine Art in London, 2014; he was exhibited at the United Nations in 2003. He has also been included in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Museums in Washington D.C and New York, at the Casa de America in Madrid, Spain, and the La Tertulia de Cali Museum, Colombia, among others.
