Meet Powerpaola | Visual Artist, illustrator and Cartoonist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Powerpaola and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Powerpaola, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born in Quito, Ecuador, but my family is Colombian and now I live in Argentina. I have lived in many countries throughout my life: Ecuador, Colombia, France, Australia, El Salvador, Germany and Argentina. I have been an immigrant since I was born and I feel nomadic. I believe that all these cultures are part of myself , my creative process and have influenced my work and way of perceiving everything around me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I studied Artistic Expression in Cali, Colombia. A kind of laboratory of a career where I was a guinea pig, every semester we saw different artistic disciplines: literature, visual arts, theater and music, where we observed the crossings between them.

Then I studied fine arts in Medellin where I graduated as a painter. From the beginning my work has been an exploration of autofiction, narration, everyday life, portraiture and experimentation between text and image.

It has never been easy to make a living from art, and at the time I graduated I knew it would be more complicated if I stayed in Medellín, because at that time there were only two galleries and one of them did not exhibit women’s work.
I had the good fortune to win an artistic residency in Paris (La Cité Internationale des Arts) where I lived for two years, I dedicated myself to painting, drawing and learning French by reading comics.
I painted in large formats or in small sketchbooks I took notes with drawings and texts. My first solo exhibition was at Miss China Rue Française near the Pompidou, a gallery specializing in works made by women. There I showed several of my notebooks and did a painting on the wall for a month.

That exhibition “Rouge d’un lieu” gave me enough strength to continue investigating the possibilities of the format. That’s how I started to experiment with text and images and make my own comics about my life as an immigrant, my love relationships, the cities I knew and my daily adventures.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Now I am in Bogota, Colombia.
I would like to take her for a walk in downtown Bogota, go sketching at Café Pasaje, a popular and old cafe that still resists the new trends of hipster specialty coffee.
We could visit the Gold Museum where there are thousands of pre-Colombian figures made in gold, we could also visit the museum of the Bank of the Republic where there is a huge collection of modern and contemporary art.
We would walk through the Plaza Bolivar and we can also have lunch at one of the little places that is close to a typical soup called Ajiaco, it is delicious, highly recommended.
I would like us to go camping, painting and hiking in one of the nature reserves near the capital where there are glacial lakes, mountain ranges and wild animals such as bears and pumas.
I would also take her to several giant markets in the ilúdase where they sell all kinds of fruits and vegetables. There is a market called the witch market where they sell all kinds of plants and medicinal vines.
I would take her to drink a craft beer in Casa de la paz, a collective project led by signatories of the peace agreement committed to making the memories of the armed conflict visible, a place of reconciliation and the construction and promoting a culture of peace and generating dignified labor guarantees. And finally I would like to take her to Matik Matik, a place where experimental live bands play.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I owe everything I do to millions of women who came before me, fighting for the rights of all. So I dedicate this to them, to my mother, my sisters and to all my artist friends who in one way or another have accompanied, valued and inspired me to continue with this independent and creative life.

Instagram: @powerpaola

Twitter: @powerpaola

Image Credits
Powerpaola self portrait by Hernán Sansone