In recent years, Sol Calero has developed a body of all-immersive installations that bring her pictorial exploration to a spatial and contextual level. With painting at the core of her practice, her investigation looks back to non-canonical, traditional and popular art forms excluded from western art history. In looking at how Latin American cultures are perceived and exported, her work faces the spectator with the processes of exoticism inherent to the imagery and narratives of the cultural other. Under a festive and luminous appearance, Calero questions the production of standards and clichéd iconography with a singular and consistent presentation of abstracted tropicalism. In the form of paintings or objects, her patterns, floral and fruit shapes are mixed with elements of vernacular architecture, claiming self-construction as a medium of social action. The mosaics, corrugated plastics, latticework and the use of color that appears in her work allude to the abilities of individuals and communities to adapt; to create an aesthetic of survival while performing their idiosyncrasy.
Sol Calero (b. 1982, Caracas) lives and works in Berlin where she co-directs the project space Kinderhook & Caracas with artist Christopher Kline and she is a member of the project Conglomerate TV.
Calero studied at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife. She has been nominated for the Preis der National-galerie in association with Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and shortlisted for the Future Generation Art Prize. Recent individual exhibitions include: El barco de barro (The Clay Ship), Contemporary Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 2020; Se empeñaban en tapar las gri-etas, pero las paredes seguían sudando, Villa Arson, 2020; El Autobús, TATE Liverpool, 2019; Archivos Olvidados, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2019; El Patio, Museum van Boijmans Be-unigen, Rotterdam, 2018; Casa Isadora, Brücke Museum, Berlin, 2018; Milagritos y Frutas, Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris, 2018; Pica Pica, Düsseldorf Kunstverein, 2018; Solo Pintura, Barbara Gross Galerie, Munich, 2018; Tente en el aire, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisboa, 2018. Recent group exhibitions include: La Puerta, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2019; Preis der Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2017; Casa Anacaona, Folkestone Triennial, Folkestone, 2017.
Instagram: @solcalero_
Casa de Cambio. Sol Calero, Casa de Cambio, 2016. Art Basel Statements, Basel. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Andrea Rossetti.
Amazonas Shopping Center. Sol Calero, Amazonas Shopping Center, 2017. Installation view Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin 2017. Photo by Trevor Good.
Amazonas Shopping Center. Sol Calero, Amazonas Shopping Center, 2017. Installation view Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin 2017. Copyright: Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Jan Windszus.
Casa Isadora Brücke-Museum, exhibition opening, May 2018. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Anika Büssemeier ©Brücke-Museum
Pica Pica. Sol Calero, Pica Pica, 2018. Installation view, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Katja Illner.
El Autobus Sol Calero, El Autobús, 2019. Tate, Liverpool. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Roger Sinek.
Isla Sol Calero, Isla, 2019. Extra City, Antwerp. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by WeDocument Art
Se empeñaban en tapar las grietas, pero las paredes seguían sudando. Sol Calero, Se empeñaban en tapar las grietas, pero las paredes seguían sudando, Villa Arson, Nice. Courtesy of the artist, ChertLüdde, Berlin and Galerie Crèvecoeur, Paris. Photo by François Fernandez
El Barco De Piedra. Sol Calero, El barco de piedra (The Clay Ship), 2020. Installation view, Contemporary Copenhagen. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by David Stjernholm.
