Colombian-born Juan Mejía’s work occupies an interesting terrain between intention and form. Always starkly minimal, but notably absent of the coldness that typifies the genre to some, Mejía’s pieces reflect his training as an architect in their playful approach to form and space.
The artist has worked in many mediums, from Sintra, a plasticine material from which he carves his recognizable “Signos” series, to rusted bronze, emblematic of his series of folded sculptures entitled “Origami”.
Below is an excerpt from Mejía’s artist statement that accompanied his recent “Polymorphisms” series:
“My sculptures furnish valuable elements of minimalist connotation. On the emphasis of securing a compositional balance, we find the limits of the pictorial language and the architectonic design. After the research in “Origami”, with the totems and folded pieces in iron, utilizing paper in “Light Boxes” first and a sheet of poly vinyl in “Subtle Spaces”, cuts and folds are implemented to cause alternating light and shadow effects, defining immaterial spaces that are always marked by the rigor of order and geometry.
These pieces are polymorphic structures which are originated from intentional lines, accents, rhythms and games of full and empty spaces on the original flat surface. They then become three-dimensional sculptural objects of grand finesse.”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2014 “The Intangible origin”. CERO Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia
2014 “Sensorial thickness”. Tolima´s Art Museum -MAT- Tolima, Ibague, Colombia
2013 “Polymorphisms: Barks, Radiant forests and Totems.” Gallery of the Central Library. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. UPB, Medellin, Colombia / ETRA Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA. / LGM International Art, Bogotá
2013 “The language of man”. Gallery knöerle & baettig, Winterthur, Switzerland
2011 “Subtle spaces”, ETRA Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA.
2009 “Lightboxes” – White on white, Alonso Garces Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia.
2007 “Origami”. ETRA Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2015 Zenu Museum of Contemporary Art, MUZAC Artists LGM. Monteria, Colombia
2014 Small format. “El Castillo” Museum, Medellin, Colombia
2014 Intermediate show. LGM International Art, Bogotá, Colombia
2013 Small format. “El Castillo” Museum, Medellin, Colombia
2012 Tribute to John Cage. U. Gallery of art of the National University of Colombia. Medellin, Colombia.
2012 Summer show. ETRA Fine Art Gallery. Miami, USA.
2012 Small format. “El Castillo” Museum, Medellin, Colombia
2011 Spring Show. ETRA Fine Art Gallery, Miami, USA.
2008 Summer show. ETRA Fine Art Gallery. Miami, USA.
2008 Summer show. ETRA Fine Art Gallery. Miami, USA.
2005 Fragments of my neighborhood. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana UPB, Medellin, Colombia.
1993 New Headquarters, Modern Art Museum of Medellin, MAMM. Rabinovich prize. Medellin, Colombia.
1989 Puerto Mirador, Riogrande ll call. Modern Art Museum of Medellin, MAMM, Medellin, Colombia.
