Category Archives for People I’ve met

Meet Jose Ignacio Cadena Trujillo

Jose Ignacio Cadena Trujillo

Here’s another person I’d love you to meet. His name is Jose Ignacio Cadena Trujillo and he’s an artist. He lives in a small cottage with his lovely wife in the remote countryside, nestled in the mountains in La Calera, which is about 30 minutes from North Bogota. Nacho’s story is a pretty amazing one, as he has very limited eyesight. When he was just 11 years old, they found a tumour in his brain. After they removed the tumour with brain surgery, he was left with a visual field reduction in the right eye and a lesion in the left eye’s optic nerve. His memory and language skills were also destroyed, meaning he had to learn both again from scratch.

Now Nacho can see objects, colours, light and shadow, but in one eye, his visual field has been reduced by 70% and in the other, the notion of depth has been flattened. He says that he lives in a ‘2D Universe’.

Overall, pretty remarkable when you see his artwork.

So how did I meet him? He is a friend of a friend of mine. In true Colombian spirit, my friend wanted to introduce me to him, so grabbing a couple of his other mates, we climbed into the car and we were off, laden with a couple of grocery bags containing our lunch ingredients.

So what happens when you have an artist, a chief, two entrepreneur business minds and a writer stroke artist stroke unemployed advertiser? You make food, open some beers, drink tinto and you talk. Now this is the life.

Chef chops food

Delicious salad

Crowding around the food

From the outside, Nacho’s home looks quite small and quite uneventful. But as soon as the car pulled up, we were greeted like long-lost friends and hushered into his home in the famous Paisa spirit. Once inside, you are gobsmacked by the art. It’s everywhere; on floors, on walls, on canvas, on sketchpads, on paper, on print, on wooden boxes, on bottles and even the cat scratcher is an artistic sculptor. Nacho is only too happy to pull out canvases or present his vast painting on paper collections, explaining in detail each piece and what they meant. At least, that’s what I gather as my Spanish only goes so far, or it might have been that I was in a desert heaven so my mind was wondering…

Amazing view from the studio

Seduced by the desert...homemade uchuva ice cream with mint, almonds and biscuits

For those of you without a desert in hand and advance Spanish, here is that translation about Nacho’s story behind is artwork “At first, when I was a child, painting was an exercise and way of escape. Next I looked to empty all logical intention inside of me in an abstract, deep emptiness that afterwards became a noisy, dark hole with a loaded brushstroke of yellow against an orange background. That character gave me a vision for another; which in that moment needed to take an anthropomorphic direction that today helps me reference the human being (the species and I suppose my alto ego) and through this I always depict change and movement.

Afterwards, in the internal intersection and / or collision between the figurative and abstract, I returned to the parallel path I mentioned earlier in that there isn’t a clear representation….It’s more an intimate portrayal of a brain microscope and electricity that I relate to from my history with neurology, and what’s more with the heads of others. So in this story, the art materials are transformed into a beast of something so profound, complex and utterly absurd…like the homo-sapiens of our century”.

Pretty intellectual and in-depth stuff…especially for my Spanish. But, art doesn’t need a language and what I took from the paintings spellbound me. His passion and talent goes beyond the four walls of his cottage and wraps you up in a warmth of creativity. I don’t think he has a humble home at all, in fact, I think he is the luckiest man ever. Who else could have a home literally built from artwork and call it humble?

When recovering, Nacho explored his new spatial perception through his art

Nacho’s work is both figurative and abstract, but he leaves the message open for the viewer to interpret. He describes his work as a mirror which reflects the viewer’s thoughts

Nacho’s artwork costs from $ 180,000 COP to $ 7,000,000 COP

With the artist

I wanted to show his work to you because it is amazing and undiscovered. So I wanted to introduce you to him. Perhaps you would like to buy his art? Or maybe you know of a gallery that would like to?

If you would like to get in touch with Nacho, you can contact him at:

• www.wix.com/joseignaciocadena/paginadelartista
• facebook: Jose Ignacio Trujillo Chain
• Twitter: @ignaciocadena
• e-mail: ignaciocadena@gmail.com
• Phone (+57) 3125735510 or 3012556598

And yes, although his house is very remote, he does have wifi.

Scroll below for more info about Nacho:

ESTUDIOS

1994-1997. Artes Plásticas, Escuela Popular de Arte. Medellín
1997-2003. Artes Plásticas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Sede Medellín
2004. Taller Teórico de Creación Artística; dirigido por Álvaro Medina. Bogotá

TÍTULO

Maestro en Artes Plásticas de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia

EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS

1995. V Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín. Salón Central. Secretaría de Educación y Cultura de Medellín. Sede alterna del Museo de Antioquia.
1996. I Muestra Estudiantes Artes Plásticas Escuela Popular de Arte. Tesorería Municipal. Medellín.
1998. VIII Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín. Salón Central. Museo de Antioquia.
1998. Artistas Ganadores, Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín. Salón Central 1993-1997. Hall Alcaldía de Medellín.
1999. IX Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín. Salón Central. Palacio de la Cultura.
1999. Retroprospectivas. Versiones del Devenir. Grupo Acefalia. Ateneo Porfirio Barba Jacob. Medellín.
2000. “Acefalia”. Grupo Acefalia. Cámara de Comercio de Medellín. Edificio de la Cultura.
2000. IX Salón Regional de Artistas 2000. Bienal, Zona Antioquia. Medellín.
2000. Salón Nacional de Dibujo Universidad de Antioquia. Acefalia, grupo invitado. Museo Universitario. Medellín.
2000. XI Salón Nacional de Artistas Universidad de Antioquia. Medellín.
2001. XII Salón Nacional de Artistas Universidad de Antioquia. Medellín.
2001. Salón Arturo y Rebeca Rabinovich. Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín.
2002. Pintura por Cuatro. Alianza Francesa. Medellín
2002. XII Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín. Salón Central. Palacio de la Cultura.
2002. Región Andina. Librería IDEA. Barcelona (España).
2005. Encuentros. Atena Estudio de Arte. Bogotá.
2005. 5. La Pared Galería. Bogotá.
2007. A mi no me invitaron. Librería asociativa Traficantes de Sueños. Madrid (España).
2007. Caleidoscopio. Centro Hispano Colombiano. Embajada de Colombia en España. Madrid (España).
2008. Contemporáneos. Galería Fenalco. Bogotá.
2010. Opening Area 23. Galeria Area 23. Miami (USA).

EXPOSICIONES INDIVIDUALES

1997. Exposición de Pintura para el lanzamiento del libro Dodecaedro de Palabras o los Círculos de Fuego. Comfama, Sede San Ignacio, Centro de Convenciones. Medellín.
1999. Dibujos y Tangos. Bar Calle Luna. Medellín.
2003. Extravío, Trauma y Llegada. Biblioteca Pública Piloto. Medellín.
2007. Pedazos de Carne. Galería Restaurante El Artista. Bogotá.
2008. Trece Tripas. Galería Restaurante Fuego y Mar. Bogotá.

DISTINCIONES

1995. Segundo puesto. V Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín.
1999. Tercer puesto. IX Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín.
2002. Tercer puesto. XII Encuentro de Artes Plásticas Ciudad de Medellín.

PUBLICACIONES

1995. Dodecaedro de palabras, o los círculos del fuego. Memorias del Primer Festival de Literatura Joven de Medellín y el Área Metropolitana. Comisión Asesora para la Cultura, Consejo de Medellín. Ilustración de la cubierta.
1998. Artículo El humo de Luis Tejada. Revista Universidad de Antioquia. Número 252. Abril – Junio 1998. Ilustraciones. P. 31.
1998. Artículo Querella del tratado y la tragedia de Julián Serna Arango. Revista Universidad de Antioquia. Número 252. Abril – Junio 1998. Ilustraciones. P. 59-65.
1998. Artículo Tres cuentos de Marbel Moreno de Marbel Moreno. Revista Universidad de Antioquia. Número 253. Julio – Septiembre 1998. Ilustraciones. P. 57-59.
2000. Apuntes Supieños, Bitácora de Búsquedas II de Luis Fernando González Escobar. Ediciones Caítos. Ilustraciones.
2005. Kazue Shinkawa, Poemas Selectos. Colección de poesía Prometeo. Serie Hipnos No. 14. Ilustraciones.

La Xarcuteria.

Meet Mike. I did. He was lovely. He sells sausages. A lot of them. (OK, if you’ve read my post about Frankfrt airport, you may think that I am obsessed with sausages….I am not. I think).

Mike is from California and about three months ago he opened up La Xarcuteria (charcuterie – branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, primarily pork).

It might sound strange, maybe even slightly gross, but believe me, it’s amazing. It’s part of a new wave of restaurants from other cultures making Bogota more cosmopolitan. You see, Mike’s half Colombian and moved to Colombia to live when his Colombian father retired here. His shop oozes the Californian laid-back chilled vibe on the hectic, crammed busy streets of Carrera 15 (pronounced ‘quinze’). This is a street previously known for its low-end cheap eats, and I’m not sure I want to tell you the story Mike told me about what he found in the shop when he took it over from a deep fried chicken restaurant….Whatever it was, it took him three lorry loads to clear away *insert imagination here*.

Needless to say, the restaurant is now completely gutted out and revamped, and is something you’d expect to find in Soho (London or New York). The benches are raw wood and cool, the walls have that exposed brick look and he casually has three types of wine he’s happy to sell you. Everything is kind of, you know, just cool. And believe me, when you open the glass door, it’s surprising when once again the Carrera quinze smacks you in the face with its old world ways.

I find this story a really interesting one, not only because he’s one of many ‘returning Colombians’ I’ve stumbled across, but he’s also done really well so far without mega bucks marketing and has been written up has the ‘best’ hamburger in town. (Yes he does venture away from pork…). This is shocking for me because El Corrall holds my heart as the best, and believe me, meat here in Colombia is amazing and second to none compared to the UK. It’s just a shame my companion is a vegetarian.

Menu side 1

Menu side 2

You can see more here on his Facebook page.

If you’re in the area, do pop in. He’s also just opened for Sunday brunch. He’s promised me he’ll start selling French press coffee too.

So that’s my Sunday sausage and coffee hangover fuel sorted then; Colombian style.