Cumanday- Beautiful Mountain is an ode to the tradition of landscape representation and the disappearing glaciers in Colombia. This new body of work from the Colombian American artist, Carolyn Castaño, blends her mixed media watercolor and hard-edge painting techniques with her study of colonialist 19th-century painted travelogues and map-making. The resulting artworks show layered landscape compositions of the impact of climate change on the Andean tropical glacier chains. By including printed fabrics and appliqués with tropical motifs, the artist links colonialism and its ongoing destructive effects on the environment due to resource exploitation and postindustrial manufacturing.   

This exhibition is supported in part by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, and the Bernard Kester Trust in Memory of Edith Wyle.

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Carolyn Castaño, Cumanday– Beautiful Mountain, 2023. Watercolor, gouache, appliques, fabric, sequins, on watercolor paper on canvas,144 x 78 inches. Courtesy of the artist. Photo credit: Amy L. Tierney, Thrive Images