Alejandro Ospina was born in 1970 in Bogota, Columbia. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, the New York Studio School and Duke University in the United States.  Now he lives and works in London.

He tries to work in ways that reflect continuous changes in attention at a rate and method that would have seemed absurd before the arrival of the Internet, simulating what happens in our minds when we jump from image to image accumulating and merging layers of visual information. He wants the work to reflect how the Internet has mutated the way we look at sets of images or contemplate a stream of information. Ospina’s work uses architectures of painting as a way of negotiating contemporary problems of image-making and artistic production in a networked world of complex relationships, inconsistent representations, and of technologies that have produced a flow of information at a magnitude and rate that is literally super-human.

He has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad including the Saatchi Gallery, London; Bloomberg Space, London; Paradise Row, London; Witzenhausen Gallery, New York; Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá, the Centro Cultural Salamanca and the Centro Colombo-Americano, Bogotá. Ospina has completed a residency at Altos de Chavón, Dominican Republic, participated in an exchange program at the Parsons School of Design, Paris and undertaken a studio residency at the Departure Foundation, London.

Education

2002 Masters in Fine Arts Degree, Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK

1999 Certificate Program
, New York Studio School, New York, USA

1994 Double Major Electrical Engineering / Fine Arts
, Duke University, NC, USA

1990 Exchange Program with Dukes University, Parsons School of Design Paris, FR

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2020 The Fateful Walk We Take, Galeria La Cometa, Madrid, Spain

2019 Not Even Me, FFS – Fair for Saatchi, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2017 Supergirl, Frameless Gallery, London, UK

2015 Alejandro Ospina, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York, USA

2014 Heaven on Mars, PHS Gallery with Benedetto Pietromarchi, Bogotá, Colombia

2013 Megalopolis, IMT Gallery, London
 UK

2012 Algoritmos, Centro Cultural Colombo-Americano curated by Carlos Blanco, Bogotá, Colombia

2010 Fotolog, IMT Gallery, London
2008 Blog, Christopher Paschall XX21, Bogotá, Colombia

2008 Blog, Entrearte Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia

2007 Ventana, Cultural Center University of Salamanca, Bogotá, Colombia

1997 Diners Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia

1994 Diners Gallery, Bogota, Colombia

1993 5 Actitudes, Galería Arteria / Jenni Vila, Cali, Colombia

1991 Alejandro Ospina, Museum of Contemporary Art, Bogotá, Colombia

Honors

2013 Top 5 Pick February first Thursdays for Megalopolisby TimeOut Magazine and Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK

2011 Departure Foundation Studio Sponsorship, Hammersmith, London, UK

2010 Shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Competition 2010, London, UK

2003/04 Sponsorship for CYCLE, glass installation with random light symphony: Venini, Murano (Italy), Thomas Goode and Swarovski, London, UK

2001 Shortlisted for Observer Magazine Graduate Competition 2002, London Guardian, London, UK

Jean Spencer Award, Slade School of Fine Arts, London, UK

2002 Individual Project Award, Slade School of Fine Arts, London, UK

Group Project Award for Hang the Curator, Slade School of Fine Arts

2000/01 Hearst Foundation Scholarship, New York Studio School, New York, US

1995/96 Artist in Residence, Spring ’96, Autumn ’95, Altos de Chavón, Dominican Republic

Professor of Drawing and Painting, Parsons School of Design, Dominican Republic

 

Curatorial

2008 Divisions, Co-curator, Centro Colombo Americano, Bogotá, Colombia

2005 Executive Producer Muro,Touring dance project for festival Dias de Danza,

Barcelona – Bilbao – Zaragoza, Spain

2004 Zoo Art Fair, Exhibitions Manager, London, UK

2004/03 Co-curator TrackersExhibition, Pitshanger Manor Gallery – catalogue publication, London, UK

2002 Co-curator Hang the Curatorexhibition, Riverside Studios, London, UK

Private Collections (selected list)

Ramiro Sanchez, Bogotá, Colombia

Catherine and Franck Petitgas, New York, US

Irina Komisarova, Moscow, Russia

Billy Wightman and Carmina Villegas, Bogotá, Colombia

Dani Levinas, Washington DC, US

Phillipa Adams, London, UK

John West, London, UK

Gonzalo Mendez, Mexico City, UK

Patricia Hernandez, Bogotá, Colombia / Madrid, Spain

Rosana Coury, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Virginia Cooney, New York, US

Charles Saatch, London, UK

Silvana Tinelle, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Barings Bank Collection, London, UK

Massimo and Ilaria Tossato, London, UK

Ariel Arazi, London, UK

Pablo Galante and Laura Riascos de Galante, London, UK

Eli Sutton, Bogotá, Colombia

Paul Wright, London, UK

Wendy Murdoch, New York, US

Viacheslav Aminov, Moscow, Russia

Alex Katz, New York, US