Nohemí Pérez

Nohemí Pérez was born in Tibú, Colombia in 1964.
She lives and works in Bogotá.

The multidisciplinary practice of Nohemí Pérez, revolves around the relationship between men and nature; the conflicts, tensions and genesis that arise from this constant friction.

Based on the notions of architecture, cinema and sociology, the artist proposes a rereading of the Catatumbo territory; a geographical region in the border between Colombia and Venezuela with a very particular natural and sociocultural ecosystem. From the conquest until today, Catatumbo is the scene of multiple conflicts that have been transformed to compose a complex plot of anachronistic situations characteristic of Latin American contemporaneity. Illegal armed groups of right, left, native tribes, evangelical missionaries and large multinationals of mining and drug trafficking coexist in this jungle region.

Very often, Pérez uses charcoal in her work as a reference to mining; coal itself is also a recurring element, with which she aims to make visible the exploitation of natural resources and at the same time the violence that this triggers.

From the territory of her memory and her affections, Nohemí Pérez reconstructs the history of her origin and thus, collects the voices of those who live and have lived the Catatumbo from the close emotional ties of their experience. A particular interest in Nohemí’s work is to draw new symbolic and geographical maps that correspond to the various realities of the Catatumbo to allow it to appear on the scene of reconstruction and peace.

Selected solo exhibitions include No Man’s Land, artpace, San Antonio, Texas (2023); The Forest’s Bedding, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah (2021); Catatumbo, Barranquilla Museum of Modern Art, Barranquilla, Colombia (2012); Catatumbo, NC-Arte, Bogotá (2012); El lugar sin límites, Universidad de Salamanca Cultural Centre, Bogotá (2005), and Urbania, Cartagena Museum of Modern Art, Cartagena (2003).

Pérez has been part of many collective shows such as the 15th Cuenca Biennial (2021); MECARÕ. L’Amazonie dans la collection Petitgas, MO.CO., Montpellier, France (2020); El círculo que faltaba, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM), Medellín, Colombia (2019); Fortuna. Diálogos: extracción, economía y cultura, Museo Universidad de Antioquía, Medellín, Colombia (2019); Routes and Territories, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago (2019); Tierra de/por medio, Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), Bogotá (2019); 10th SIART International Biennial, La Paz, Bolivia (2018); Terrícolas, Pereira Museum of Modern Art, Pereira, Colombia (2014); Arquitectura Emocional, Bogotá Chamber of Commerce (2009); Nuevas Donaciones, Cartagena Museum of Modern Art, Cartagena, Colombia, and August Salon, Gilberto Alzate Avendaño Foundation, Bogotá (1987).

The work of Nohemí Pérez is part of art collections around the world like the Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago; the Banco de la República Art Collection, Bogotá; the Kadist Collection, Paris and San Francisco; the ARCO Foundation, Madrid; the Cartagena Museum of Modern Art, Colombia; and the CAF Corporación Andina de Fomento Collection, Caracas.

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