STATEMENT
My practice is connected to the context and issues I encounter and my interest in the growing and shared experimentation of the everyday. My work allows me to understand and engage with the realities and politics surrounding me by searching for symbolic ways to participate, react to, and represent them. I address conditions such as the global economy, trade, migration, information markets, and the world’s end. My process often involves writing instead of sketching, and finding a signature visual style is not central to my practice. The recurring elements in my work include repetition, hoarding, annulment, insertion, and hyperbole. I use iconography and popular symbols to comment on and track the global proliferation of these very images. My pieces are usually made from objects that I continually collect, so the same series keeps expanding over time, with the same items and materials recurring in different pieces.
BIO
(b. 1988, Bogotá, Colombia) is a visual artist based in Bogotá, where she has lived her entire life. She studied art at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá (2007–2012) and earned a postgraduate residency from ISA in Havana, Cuba, in 2013.
In 2014, she was awarded the CONSCAR Flora grant to produce and present a show at Flora Ars-Natura, curated by José Roca in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2015, she participated in Take Me I’m Yours, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jens Hoffman, and Kelly Taxter, at The Jewish Museum in New York.
In 2016, she was invited to exhibit at La Segunda Bienal Tropical, curated by Pablo León de la Barra, Stefan Benchoam, Marina Reyes Franco, and Radamés Juni Figueroa, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her first international solo exhibition took place at MOCAD in Detroit in February 2017.
In March 2019, she participated in Pasado tiempo futuro, Arte en Colombia en el siglo XXI at the Museum of Modern Art of Medellín (MAMM), Colombia. In October 2019, she was featured in the Referentes section during ARTBO 2019, curated by Krist Gruijthuijsen.
In 2021, she held her first museum show in Asia at the Golden Eagle Art Museum in Nanjing, China. In 2022, she exhibited at Liveness: Itinerarios Exéntricos de Arte en Acción at the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (MAMBO), where the piece featured was acquired by the museum for its collection.
In 2023, she presented her first European solo exhibition in Nice, France, at Hoffmann Maler Wallenberg, and in 2024, she held a solo exhibition in Paris, France, at Gallery Micki Meng.
Her work was featured in ARTFORUM’s February 2017 print issue, and a review of her solo show at MOCAD can be found online in Hyperallergic.
Adriana Martínez Barón’s work is part of prominent collections, including Kadist, JPMorgan Chase, Banco de la República de Colombia, and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO).
Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a strong interest in collaborative work. She has co-founded seven collectives dedicated to producing art spaces, shows, and events: MIAMI, Carne, Ruberta, Mall, PROXIMAMENTE, dd/mm/aaaa, and r054.
