Medellin’s Sankofa dance group bridge Colombia and Africa through dance, illustrating ancestral foundations while also addressing contemporary day-to-day life.
By Jeff Guerra
Photos: Raúl Tobón
Art
Sankofa
Serious Play with Colombian Artist Esteban Garcia
The contemporary art world has its share of wire-rimmed sourpuss critics; in this article Vivana Palacio shares a peek into the world of Colombian artist Esteban Garcia who invites the critics to let their hair down and have some fun. feedback
Colombia’s Push Cart
Text: Robin Finley. Photos: Santiago Riascos The streets of Colombia offer a colorful taxonomy of entrepreneurial push carts; here, decontextualized, these convenience stores on wheels serve as a glimpse into Colombia’s informal employment sector. In a country where over 60% of the population lives in poverty, they speak of financial hardship and hope, independence, desperation, and daily survival. advertise
Urban Legend Art Piece in Cali
Carma Cobra just launched a mural reinterpretation of an old urban legend in Cali Colombia. Captured in the video below it is about an alligator that inhabited a local pond and had a propensity for eating the ducks and pets of the people who lived nearby. Carma Cobra is made up of three Colombian illustrators with three different graphic styles [...]
365 Drawings In 365 Days
365 drawings in 365 days, that was the goal of Medellin based painter Manuela Betancourt whose collection is now on display at the Chamber of Commerce in Poblado, Medellín. Betancourt’s elegantly austere images are generally composed of ink and pastel, presented in a very minimalist vein for she has won acclaim in Colombia. Her collection entitled 365 días/365 dibujos is [...]
Contrast On Canvas
Women and death are two of the bigger topics in traditional Colombian discourse: just pick up the tabloids or listen in on any street-side conversation. These iconic elements run up against one another in painter Dresan Millojara’s series, Mujeres y La Muerte. After studying design at the Colombian university UPB, he renounced graphic arts the day after graduating and soon [...]
Shots + Shots With Silva/Moreno
It was a Saturday night within a stone’s throw of Medellin’s zona rosa and a crowd of people were gathering for the launch of the new Silva/Moreno photography studio. Indie rock tunes were blasting courtesy of Mr. Bleat while hipsters both young and old took shots and giggled over photo props. The idea was a party where guests left with their [...]
Bombing Colombia
Photos and text by Justin Bonsey The roots of modern graffiti can be traced to the late 60s and early 70s, when artists such as Cornbread, Cool Earl, TAKI 183 and Stay High 149 were leaving their marks on the subway trains, buses and walls in Philadelphia and New York. Known as “bombs” or “tags”, these singularly urban works grew [...]
Four Eyes 2011 – The 4jos Event
Text and photos by Andres Felipe Gamboa This year’s 2011 4jos event (short for Cuatro Ojos or Four Eyes) gave the world a unique look at the underground urban art coming out of Medellin, Colombia.
Art & Re-Art
By vivi palacio. Photos by Federico Uribe The concept of recycling usually refers to the breaking down of used items into raw materials, using those materials to make new items. The corollary concept of reuse, meanwhile, includes both reusing an item in its original function as well as new-life reuse in which it is applied to brand new utilities. According [...]
