Jhonatan Pulido

I am looking for the act of painting to acquire more relevance than the beauty of the image or the situation that generates a work. For me, a painting should not merely be a function of the image; the painting should be a function to and for itself.

The surface becomes a diary that condenses different moments and decisions I take in the studio. Mistakes, successes and discoveries – these are all engaged with there. This is a process of construction and deconstruction, of removing material and putting it on, of falling in love with an idea and then watching it change. Painting is not knowing where to go; it is knowing how to wait, how to obey the surface and listen to what is happening there and act accordingly and in conjunction with the event. For me, painting is a condensation of that type of time.

I grew up in the Colombian countryside, surrounded by peasants, crops and nature, fresh water, mountains and rocks, but also surrounded by geography atlases and images of old cartographies. However, there was a stark contrast represented by the fear resulting from the Colombian armed conflict. When I approach an image to begin painting, the starting point is always those places and stories that remain deeply etched in my memory.

My work looks back on to Colombia from its culture and from the structure of its landscape. This constitutes a personal document of my experiences there. It is a direct tool for understanding the landscape, the territory and the relationship between humans and their social environment.