The artistic practice of Colombian artist Johanna Calle is characterized by meticulous procedures aimed at studying the constitutive elements of Colombian identity and more broadly of Latin American identity. A graduate of the Andes Universidad in Bogotá and Chelsea College of Art and Design in London, her work mixes different types of media such as painting, drawing, knitting, and installation among others to escape any reductive definition. Her works explore different types of themes such as gender, poverty, abuse of power, urbanization, ecology and mulitple issues related to violence. Her aesthetics, very recognizable, throws light on a perception of the world that is binary, hence the black and white of his works. She has exhibited in many biennials such as Sydney in 2016, Sao Paulo in 2014, Istanbul in 2014, among others. Likewise, his work has been exhibited in numerous institutions such as the MoMA in New York, the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, the Art Museum of the Bank of the Republic in Bogotá, etc.
Johanna Calle exhibits her work “Ceiba”, an installation made with old notary paper. The material, the paper used in the bureaucratic processes is parallel to the capitalist exploitation that invites to domesticate nature, and nature itself. This work invites the viewer to take into account the exploitation of ecosystems and to look with new eyes at the richness of each region.