Miler Lagos

Miler Lagos - Lago del Poniente

Technique: Epoxy resin on cotton paper

Artist Biography: Miler Lagos' work is born from his wide and incisive experimentation with different materials and how they have been detonating in central questions that cross and nourish his work. One of his main searches has been the relationship between images and objects, somehow between content and container. This is how from paper he arrives to images and from images to the passage of time and from the passage of time to the archive, to memory, to the physical and visual witness of culture; and in between working with paper as a container, thanks to an accident while he was carving it with an angle grinder, paper returned to its natural condition, that of being a tree. This fortuitous encounter allows us to see his diverse interests, which mostly lie at the intersection of nature and culture, in how human beings have modeled their space or have been modeled by environmental/geographical conditions, by rivers, lagoons, trees, mountains, and how we gradually turn nature into a resource to inhabit it, into raw material, into just a vehicle. It is just at that point where his exploration with materials transforms these concerns and matter is able to reveal its essence. He has participated in the Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador; Open Art Orebro, Sweden; SITE Biennial Santa Fe New Mexico, USA; Havana, Cuba; TRIENNIAL POLI/GRÁFICA San Juan, Puerto Rico; Biennial of the Americas, Denver, USA; VIII Biennial of Bogota, Colombia. His work has also been exhibited in institutions such as: Frost Art Museum, Miami, USA; Museo de la Tertulia, Cali, Colombia; Museo de Arte del Banco de la Republica. Bogotá, Colombia; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico; Gasworks, London, UK; Claremont Museum, Los Angeles, USA; Museo de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia; York University Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada; Sala Alcalá 31, Madrid, Spain. His work can be found in collections such as MUAC Museo de Arte Universidad Autónoma de Mexico; Harvard University; Banco de la República de Colombia; Rubell Family Collection and Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation CIFO.

 

Miler Lagos' practice is based on dialogue and experimentation with materials, which are manifested as catalyzing agents of the central issues in his artistic discourse. One of his fundamental points of reflection is the relationship between images and objects, between content and container. Wood or paper serve as the medium of representation for his interest in the intersection between nature and culture. There is a deep interest in studying how humans have shaped their space or have been shaped by environmental and geographical conditions. There is also an intention to raise awareness about the conservation of the environment and how we gradually turn nature into a resource to inhabit, into raw material, into just a vehicle. Miler Lagos' work is present in the collections of the MUAC Museo de Arte de la Universidad Autónoma de México, Harvard University, Banco de la República de Colombia, the Rubell Family Collection and the CIFO Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, among others. His Lagos series, by applying tensions on paper, the artist creates sculptural spaces. These are geographical metaphors, abstractions that evoke mountain formations and lakes in the Colombian Andean landscape. The artist's hands replicate the forces of nature, developing an intimate dialogue with the environment. It is the artisan's touch that makes the result unique.