Fernando Arias is a Colombian multidisciplinary artist. His photography, sculpture, installations and performance art act as a mouthpiece. Using irony and humour, his work engages consideration of political, environmental and identity issues pertinent to Colombia, and beyond.
Read MoreArias attracted global acclaim in the 1990s, representing Colombia in the 1999 Venice Biennale, bringing ever-present and under discussed social concerns into the space of the 'white cube'.
Arias was born in Armenia, the capital city of the Quindio Department of Colombia, in 1963. He initially studied advertising and marketing at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogotá, graduating in 1987. In 1988, Arias settled in London, where he studied Graphic Design with a specialisation in Computer Graphics at the Polytechnic City of London (now Guildhall University).
Although Arias studied commercial design, he was always aware that his work would be directly related to art. His time in London triggered a radical change in his work in that he now approached familiar symbols of nationalism from his home country through the eyes of an immigrant. It was this 'remoteness' that brought political concerns to the fore in his artworks, allowing an objective and penetrating view that not only aims to comment but takes action.
Arias now splits his time between Bogotá, London and the Colombian Pacific Coast region of Chocó, where he and his partner, Jonathan Colin, established the non-profit foundation Más Arte, Más Acción (More Art, More Action) in 2011.
Using a variety of media to express his socio-political concerns, Arias' practice is not focused on the technique but is instead guided by the theme he is trying to express. When approaching an artwork or series, he considers the immediate community it affects. His process is more of a collaboration and an exercise in relating to one another, due to his awareness of 'being part of a society.'
After winning the Colcultura Grant in 1992, Arias completed three series—Analysis (1992), Cold Room (1993) and HIV Positive (1994)—which tackled the moral and physical elements of the AIDS crisis, using his body as the vehicle for expression.
HIV Positive was displayed at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá and featured a visceral photograph of Arias' naked body covered by thousands of laboratory platelets and traces of blood. The platelets were assembled like blue swimming pool tiles and illuminated in a similar fashion, the figure permanently floating or falling. This exhibition encouraged the viewer's engagement through a comment book where visitors wrote stories and poems commenting on the stigma of the virus and its emotional impact.
In 2008, Arias created the project Humanos Derechos (Humans Standing Upright) which featured videos and sculptures of people involved in different groups within the fifty-year Colombian conflict—a soldier, a paramilitary, a guerrilla and a farmer from Chocó—taking their clothes off in synchrony. The title of the series 'Humanos Derechos' is a pun on 'human rights' in Spanish and aimed to reveal how the individuals, when stripped of their symbolic objects, were all equal, centralising the human condition above the banality of war.
In 2011, Arias co-founded the non-profit organisation Más Arte Más Acción which offers artist residencies and scholarships and aims to generate a platform to encourage interdisciplinary projects, whilst working in tandem with the communities in the remote Colombian Pacific region. Originally arriving in Chocó to write an article for a magazine, he became obsessed with the lush rainforest and local people and eventually established Chocolate House as a base for the initiative. Arias sees this as another artwork in itself and an ongoing project that gives space to talk about issues that have long fascinated him.
In 2020, Arias compiled the series Nada que Cesa ('Nothing that Ceases') for the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá centred around the body, gender and sexuality in Colombia's society. The title 'Nada que Cesa' is ironically taken from the national anthem of Colombia, which was paraphrased by then-president Juan Manuel Santos in his speech during the signing of the Peace Accords with the FARC in 2016. Instead of the 'horrible night' ceasing, the exhibition suggested anything but, as the conflicts continued and protests loomed.
0566 (Victims Counter) was an installation configured from a large board of LED lights, displaying the number '0566' which was the number of murders from the signing of the peace agreement to the date of the inauguration, the red lights illuminating the gallery space.
Arias won the Colcultura Grant in 1993 and the Premio Nacional de las Artes from the Colombian Ministry of Culture in 1994. In 1997, he won the Scottish Arts Council Award, and in 1998 he won the London Printworks Trust Award. He represented Colombia in the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999. In 2002, Arias won the Research & Development Visual Arts Projects Award and the Individual Artist Award from London Arts, along with the Space Studio Award, the Millenium Award and the CIDA Award. He won the Prince Claus Foundation Award in 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2013. Arias won the Beca de Investigación y Creación from the Ministerio de Cultura de Colombia in 2008 and 2009. In 2012—2013, he won the Mondrian Fund and the Hivos Fund Award.
Fernando Arias has been the subject of both solo exhibition and group exhibitions. Solo exhibitions include Nada Que Cesa, Mambo, Bogotá (2020); 0566, FORO.SPACE, Bogotá (2019); La Incerteza Esta In, Eduardo Fernandes, São Paulo (2016); Cantos de Viaje, Eduardo Fernandes Gallery, São Paulo (2014); Srinagar Kashmir, EastCentral Gallery, London (2012).
Group exhibitions include Fortuna, diálogos, extracción, economía y cultura, Museo Universitario, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin (2019); Here/Now (What Art Can Do Foundation) Framer Framed Space, Amsterdam (2019); Chocó: Rios de Oro y Saberes, Museo de Arte Colonial, Bogotá (2018); La Nariz del Diablo, Espacio Odeón, Bogotá (2017); Medellín, una historia colombiana, Le Abattoirs Museum, Tolouse (2017).
Fernando Arias's Instagram can be found here.
Articles about Arias have been written in respected publications including Art Forum and Bomb Magazine.
Annie Curtis | Ocula | 2021
