Kimberly Orjuela is a Colombian artist who lives and works in Montreal. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University. Her practice is rooted in the pre-Columbian Indigenous knowledge of Colombia and in her experience as a Latin American woman living in Canada. Drawing on pre-Columbian cosmologies, Orjuela creates ceramic and textile sculptures in faux leather, using figurative forms to create a dialogue between ancestral knowledge and contemporary reality.
Grounded in postcolonial reflection, her research explores histories shaped by erasure and examines contemporary issues, including the increasing precarity of mental health and climate change. She considers these issues to be interconnected, examining the systems and behaviours that influence them. Her study of symbolism, cosmologies, and ceramic materials also allows her to explore notions of balance, benevolence, and interdependence within both psychological and ecological systems. These reflections take shape in Orjuela’s sculptures, where research, knowledge, and artistic creation come together.
Kimberly Orjuela has participated in artist residencies in Denmark, Colombia, and Quebec, and has presented her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Quebec, Canada, and the United States. Her practice has also been supported by several grants from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.
Her work is part of the following collections:
The Gardiner Museum
Arsenal Contemporary
Casa Taller EL Boga, Colombia
