Abel Rodríguez

Born 1944 | Cahuinarí region
Lives and works Bogotá

In his meticulous drawings, Abel Rodríguez documents his own memories of the Amazon forest. Rodríguez’s drawings for the 14th Gwangju Biennale also continue his explorations into the personal memories of the Amazon forest. In these works, trees of various shapes and colours rendered in colourful ink fill up almost the entirety of the picture plane, while small animals occupy the earthy grounds represented in the lower half. In The tree of life and abundance (El Arbol de la vida y la abundancia) 2022, minute hand-written inscriptions around the animals such as ‘Dolfin Rojo’ (red dolphin) describe the species depicted, transforming the drawing into an encyclopedic artefact as well as an aesthetic object.

Abel Rodríguez, Installation view, 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023). Image courtesy Gwangju Biennale Foundation. Photo: glimworkers