Oscar Muñoz (artist)

During the early 1970s, Colombia experienced a massive urban expansion due to rural dwellers migrating to the cities.

In an interview, Muñoz explained it as a time of "extensive cultural activity and creativity, ruptures, and exploration for new possibilities in all areas.

Later on in the 1980s and 1990s, Colombia was plagued by wars between feuding drug cartels and the Colombian government, which acted as inspiration for several of Muñoz's pieces during this time.

One such piece that came out of this was Ambulatorio: an aerial photograph of Cali printed on a sheet of shattered glass, which viewers can walk on, looking down on the city.

After the bomb had exploded, Muñoz was able to walk through the city and in the process became fascinated by the fragments of glass he saw scattered everywhere, some of which had become encrusted into the pavement.

Muñoz believes that in a country which has suffered through the existence of violence and wars for decades - and has become all that people have ever known in some cases - memory can become contaminated and confusing.

[1] He stated that the particularities of memory can become confused, obscured, and unresolved, and that it becomes difficult to establish distinct moments from Colombia's past and relate them to the present, because everything seems to run together in a continuing narrative of violence.

In 2006, Muñoz founded a cultural center and art residency program in Cali, Colombia called Lugar a Dudas (Space for Doubts).

These hyper-realistic charcoal drawings depicted several large mansions originally inhabited by important families on the Main Plaza of the downtown area of Cali, Colombia.

Through these works he also attempted to re-contextualize and assimilate an international artistic tendency of that time period to one that fit Colombia.

[1] His drawings were first displayed in the Ciudad Solar (a groundbreaking new alternative art space in Cali[3]), and it was through these pictures that Muñoz first began to receive attention for his work.

[4] Up until this point his works had consisted primarily of hyper-realistic charcoal drawings and photographs, so this marked the beginning of exploring the use of new materials in his art.

The charcoal dust settles on the surface of the water, and floats precariously "in an imminent process of change and destruction.

[1] This series consists of seven small oval mirrors screen printed with grease installed at eye level for viewers.

[1] The central idea that Muñoz wanted to explore and express in this work was that of memory - how it can never be made permanent, despite our best efforts to hold onto it - as well as the relationship between life and death.

Narcisos (1995) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2022