Through media such as drawing, installation, architecture, sculpture, video, and performance, Mateo López (Bogotá, Colombia, 1978) proposes poetic investigations into process, displacement, personal narratives, and time. His work stems from a conceptual approach grounded in the idea of the journey — physical, mental, and symbolic — and the creation of subjective cartographies that connect seemingly random events into meaningful webs.
Initially known for his meticulous drawings, López has expanded his practice into the exhibition space, where his works take on a choreographic and interactive dimension. His interest in activating the exhibition environment led him to incorporate the body and movement, bringing vitality to his installations and proposing new forms of audience engagement. This shift deepened during his time as a protégé of South African artist William Kentridge through the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Throughout his career, López has continuously questioned the very definition of drawing — not merely as a mark on paper, but as an expanded, spatial, and performative language.
Selected solo exhibitions: Pasado Futurista, NC Arte, Bogotá, Colombia (2024); Pasado Futurista, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Lima, Peru (2023); Camina Habla Canta Baila, Travesía Cuatro, Madrid, Spain (2023); Círculo de palabras, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, USA (2022); Palabras de cierre, Diablo Rosso Gallery & Prisma Dance Festival, Panama (2022); Hesitante, Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Sí pero no, Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia (2020); Goodman Gallery, London, UK (2020).
Selected group exhibitions: Goodman Gallery, Cape Town (2019); KMAC Museum, Louisville (2019); Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (2019); Contemporary Art from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Puebla (2019); Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (2018); Museo de Arte de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2017); MuBE, São Paulo (2017); MoMA, New York (2017).
His work is part of major public and private collections, including: MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art, USA; CACI – Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Brazil; Banco de la República / Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Colombia; CIFO – Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, USA; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Venezuela and USA; Berezdivin Collection, Puerto Rico.