Joaquin Restrepo (1984) is a visual artist and sculptor whose work is influenced by the study of the human figure, industrial techniques, metallurgical-sculptural processes of the last century, and the widespread practices of drawing and virtuality.

His works function as an archaeology of expression and interiority, studies of the body in which using materials with sculptural potential and everyday life scope, closely linked to a contemporary industrial society, he offers a personal vision and deepens the significant collective experiences of the body such as the joy and the pain in gestures. Restrepo often takes important events from industrial societies and the history of representation as his starting point, delving into the burdens and tensions between body, space, and subjectivity.

Restrepo’s work is in constant dialogue with thought, literature and theories of corporeality, and material production of human sensitivity. His intention is to stage, make everyday life the theatre of life, elements of bodily suggestion as a constant reflection of presence and inwardness, through which he comes to propose forms of subjectivity, the collective body, and the significant interior as characteristics of being human.

Restrepo’s work formally looks into the knowledge of human anatomy, volume, and gesture which converse between the construction processes of industrial engineering of the last century, and the addition and subtraction modelling process typical of the tradition of sculpture. The working method of Restrepo gives importance to the value of the material and respect for the craft, to the knowledge in making and the work of an artist in what we can discern as a laborious process, dedicated and disciplined. This principle, which spans and overlaps Restrepo’s entire set of work, reveals his insistence that the work of creating is a constant meditation which carries itself into every detail, focusing on the search of form and therefore, an exercise of thought elaborated from the skills and procedures of the craft. In other words, from the production and understanding of technical processes, Restrepo opens the discussion about the subject who thinks of himself, his relationship with the world, and his possibility to act in the world by transforming it through actions, tools, and technologies.

Particularly in his exploration of the corporal gestures possessed by each of his works, the movement or the subtleties of his figures, we find processes of projection of motor-affective and verbal communication which encompasses dramatic expression, and its reflection in the world. This construction process invites the public to read themselves in an affective way, which fluster the body and one’s own subjectivity.

A work in amber

Joaquin Restrepo’s works are like a piece of amber, which traps and highlights inside what happened once. The word “timeless” almost always precedes his pieces. Since it is a seductive idea, and it is to transcend beyond time.

This drive for timelessness is not a mere accident, the life and influences of the Colombian artist have become a body of work that directly reflects the need to create art which recognizes both past and future. Nietzsche speaks of amor fati, the realization that life is an inevitable cycle of repetitions where it is more advisable not to fight against fate but to learn to love it. You learn to love destiny because you trust that every new thing which comes along is, even if it is not what you want, at least, it is what it should be. When a person discovers his creative vocation at an early age, it is easy to understand how to develop that trust in fate. From then on everything becomes fuel and inspiration. From the artist’s trips to school to the time he spent talking with adults in his family (introvert and passionate about history since he was little), all of these undoubtedly shaped his approach to art.

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In his adolescence, when he was already creating his first pieces, mentors began to arrive who would share with Joaquin not only their technical knowledge but also an appreciation for the artistic process. First was Débora Arango (1907-2005), with whom Joaquin Restrepo shared his afternoons after school. They struck up such a friendship and mentoring process that they even collaborated on the last painting of this transgressive artist.

Then came the American artist Ethel Gilmour (1940-2008). The time he spent attending classes with this painter not only broadened Joaquin Restrepo’s technical horizon (collage and land art) but also his ability to different perspectives. Not only in seeing how others would see, but also appreciating the ways in which other people’s eyes can perceive their own country.

One of the artist’s last mentors was David Manzur (1926). Manzur guided the young artist’s learning process and instilled in him a deep passion for drawing as a way of thinking. During this time in Bogotá, Joaquin was in the Faculty of Arts of Universidad de los Andes.

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Learning to love destiny is a Sisyphean task. With destiny comes bad experiences, difficult moments, duels that must become, over time, inspirations. Again, and again, one must face situations that one would surely prefer not to experience. Throughout his professional life, Joaquin Restrepo has transformed various difficult moments both in the history of his country as well as his personal life into art. He has turned more than 10,000 knives seized by the Colombian police into a piece (ichthys) which restores the public’s ability to approach objects with curiosity that were once used to hurt others. The ghosts which haunted him as a child in his childhood home, alienation and school bullying when he was young, the death of his mother (who lives as a perennial influence in his life), the Colombian sculptor transforms sadness into timeless and iconic pieces such as Miserere, that obtained one of the highest prices of the night in 2008 at Christie’s Auction House in New York in conjunction with Fundación Corazón Verde.

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Love of destiny is accepting gracefully the fact that the plans one had at the beginning of 2020, would not happen because a global pandemic would get in the way. People were unexpectedly forced to confront themselves and overcome fears to find a better version of themselves. Adapting to changes with curiosity is the reason why during his quarantine, the artist concentrated on one of his passions, technology (programming and its possibilities), something that he could not explore fully due to lack of time. Beating beneath his love for art and parallel to his artistic career, Restrepo had always harbored an insatiable curiosity about technology and how it could serve as a function of art. Sisyphus tells of an endless and arduous work, but it is in the space before the top of the mountain where artists can experiment with their creativity. Before the timelessness of his work, materials such as bronze, iron, wood were evident and imposed on its exposed structures in areas where they were installed. Today, he is able to create digital multimedia spaces which will live forever on the internet.

Joaquin Restrepo creates pieces that inspire viewers to confront their thoughts. They are structures on which can be hung, regardless of the time or the person who is observing. They synthesize the multiplicity of experiences that the artist has lived and present testimony to the stability which can be obtained when one is at peace with destiny.

The style of work which Restrepo develops as a set of experiences, investigations, and explorations that put on dialogue between the gestures and the subjective construction of the body, inherited from the history of art and the study of the great masters, with the industrial and architectural forms and impulses which are unique in the designs of cities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. His work gives rise to presences which permanently occupy bodies in a time that becomes itself, timeless. His proposal is recognized due to the treatment of technical support, which allows him to develop his own language, based on the reinterpretation of significant elements of metallurgical processes with the plasticity of the representation of the human body. His proposals are characterized by their deep gestural expressions, the awareness of the value of details, such as the transformation processes and procedures of materials and the high suggestive capacity which captures the human experience.