CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced En el principio / In the beginning: Juliana Góngora Rojas, Matías Quintero Sepúlveda, Juven Piranga Valencia, and Yinela Piranga Valencia, which will be on view March 29–July 28, 2025. The installation marks the first solo exhibition of Colombian sculptor Juliana Góngora at a major museum in the United States. Working primarily with organic matter—soil, salt, stones, spider threads—Góngora highlights the transformative potential of everyday actions and materials, and the innate ties between human beings and nature.
For this exhibition, Góngora has invited fellow artist Matías Quintero Sepúlveda, as well as Juven and Yinela Piranga Valencia, leaders of the Ko’revaju Indigenous community of the Northern Colombian Amazon, to create an installation that honors the ongoing artistic and spiritual dialogue that they have collectively sustained over several years. Weaving together earth, its pigments, milk, plant fibers, and seeds, the artists and community leaders give form to their shared vision of interconnectedness, collectivity, and creation.
At the heart of the exhibition are two works that together represent a complete universe. The first is a textile, Manto celeste (Celestial Cloth), which incorporates the sand-based blue pigmentation used by ancient Egyptians to represent motherhood, water, and the cosmic sky. The second is the site-specific floor installation Piso de tierra (Earth Floor), made with local soil and clay, which roots the work in everything that came before to sustain life, including the earth and the seed. Other objects in the exhibition are made with sacred materials native to the Colombian territory, displayed in ways that pay tribute to their traditional uses.
“We share the artists’ collective vision of environmental stewardship and the show honors the materials that come from the earth—those created by a larger force,” said Anna Burkhardt Pérez, Neville Bryan Assistant Curator, Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago. “These works, which are the culmination of intense conversations and spiritual work, highlight the importance of simplicity, humility, and intention in our daily actions and relations. The artists have created a communal space for spirituality within the walls of the museum that visitors will be able to experience firsthand.”
En el principio / In the beginning is curated by Anna Burckhardt Pérez, Neville Bryan Assistant Curator, Architecture and Design.
