Adriana Salazar

News

11/05/2012. Escaping with the Landscape. Luz y Oficios Gallery, La Habana, Cuba.

03/05/2012. The Life of Dying Things. La Miscelanea, Mexico City, Mexico.

05/03/2012. Fonca-Ministry of Culture of Colombia Residency grant. Mexico City, Mexico

16/02/2012. Los Impoliticos. Group Show. Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo.

08/12/2011. The Birdwatchers. Group Show. Bitforms Gallery, New York.

22/11/2011. Catalejo. Group Show. Jorge Tadeo Lozano Museum of Art, Bogota, Colombia.

03/11/2011. Desiring Machine Project. Group Show. Bogota, Colombia.

10/10/2011. Moving Plants Project. Memorial de America Latina, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

30/10/2011. Attempts for a Perfect World. Group Show. La Tertulia Museum, Cali, Colombia.

Please send your messages to: asalazarvelez@gmail.com

Adriana Salazar's work deals with the problem of human actions, recreating their denaturalization through machines built and designed by her. Her kinetic sculptures perform actions that are strictly human, through a series of robotic mechanisms.

Salazar’s automats carry out basic tasks, such as tying a shoe’s shoelaces or threading a needle, and suggest the absurd idea of machines that are able to replace the human being in such practical matters. The actions by themselves lose their meaning, as they are taken out of the context of daily life. This critical stance serves as a way of thinking about technological advances nowadays, considering we live in a time when allegedly everything can be done through circuits and programs, which release us from time-consuming tasks. We are addressing a future –anticipated by science fiction-, in which no action demands our understanding.

Salazar’s work is humorous to a certain point, since her machines are built in a basic way compared to new technologies. The clumsiness with which they perform is intentional and their function does not point to any practical result. In this sense, each piece is a portrait of contemporary life: a life led by the compulsive consumption of useless products, promising the accomplishment of an easier way of being.

Adriana Salazar, born in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1980, works as a visual artist, fashion designer and philosophy researcher. She received her Master of Fine Arts Degree in 2002, with Honors, from the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogotá, Colombia. She has been showing her work ever since, focused on the question of gestures and human behavior. She has participated in art biennales, collective and solo exhibitions, locally and internationally. She has also participated in several academic and curatorial projects, and in international artistic residencies. She was a sculpture teacher for the Undergraduate program of Visual Arts, at the Javeriana University of Bogota. In 2006 she founded La Ropería, a fashion design store that features the creations of 30 local fashion designers. She also designs clothes for her own brand. In 2010 she received a Magna cum Laudae Post-graduate degree in Philosophy, at the Javeriana University of Bogotá, where she lives and works.

Recent Group Shows
2012. Los Impolíticos. Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo.
2011. The Birdwatchers. Bitforms Gallery, New York.
2011. Trivialities and Commonplaces. Sandra Montenegro Contemporary Art, Miami.
2011. Art and movement. Galeria Marta Traba, Memorial de América Latina, Sao Paulo.
2011. Catalejo Project. Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, Bogota.
2011. ArtRio 2011. Pier Muá, Rio de Janeiro.
2011. Seven Women, Seven Stories. Arteamericas, Miami.
2011. On the Territory: Contemporary Art in Colombia. Santralistanbul Museum, Istanbul.
2011. On the Territory: Contemporary Art in Colombia. Cermodern, Ankara.
2011. Attempts for a Perfect World. Banco de la Republica Museum, Bogota.
2011. RE Discovering Akiyoshidai. Akiyoshidai International Art Village. Yamaguchi, Japan.

2010. It could have been. LA Galería, Bogota.
2010. Puntos suspensivos. Mexico City Museum, Mexico DF.
2010. Trans Fronteiras Contemporaneas. Galeria Marta Traba, Sao Paulo.
2010. Artbo 2010. LA Galería, Bogota.
2010. Fictions and Fantasies. El Museo Gallery, Bogota.
2010. I would rather do it. Los Andes University’s Project Room, Bogota.
2010. Artistic Residencies. Galería Santa Fé, Bogota.
2009. Los Impolíticos. PAN Palazzo delle Arti, Naples.
2009. Asimetrías y Convergencias. Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo.
2009. Borderless Generation. Korea Cultural Center, Seoul.
2009. Regreso, arte latinoamericano y memoria. Palacio Linares, Casa de América. Madrid.

Recent Solo Shows
2012. Dying Nature. Espacio Odeón, Bogotá.
2011. Failed Attempts. Casa Velasquez, Corumbá.
2010. Disappearing Exercises. LA Galería, Bogota.
2008. Doing it myself. Toulouse Gallery, Rio de Janeiro.
2008. Savage life. LA Gallery, Bogota.
2006. Measure. Alliance Française, Bogota.
2005. Machines that do things and things done with the hand. 302 Workshop, Bogota.

Artistic Residencies
2012 Fonca-Ministerio de Cultura, México DF.
2011 Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Yamaguchi, Japan.
2011 Nordic Artist’s Center. Dale, Norway.
2009 Galería Vermelho. Sao Paulo, Brasil.