In the Studio with Monika Bravo

Monika Bravo in the studio

Born in Bogota, Colombia, artist Monika Bravo is a multidisciplinary artist currently residing in Miami Beach, Florida. Her wide-ranging body of work includes still and moving images, sculptural installations and interactive digital animations that explore how reality is perceived through our relationship to space and time. In her integrated work, transcending disciplines and being able to draw from the source of important spiritual teachings, such as Taoism, Buddhism, the Vedaś and evolutionary astrology, she creates environments and experiences that allude to recognizable landscapes offering a platform where she materializes her emotional state to decipher the laws that govern the Universe, thus challenging our ‘traditional’ linear frameworks.

Moving and still images have always been crucial elements in Bravo’s practice, transcending from medium to materiality, back and forth, in a complex interplay where contemplation arises, sparking awareness in the viewer. She uses visual imagery as the building blocks upon which to construct a new reality, evoking questions and consciousness. Similar to the tradition of painting her exuberant use of color, that she considers as fields of matter, conceived alongside the essential element of duration, results in mesmerizing experiences and introspective works.

For Bravo, ‘Time` both functions as a theme, a concept, and also as an artistic plasma:

“I believe that canonical Western culture conceives time as a linear narrative that always has a beginning and an end. What I propose, then, is that time be perceived as a circular material, with intangible cycles that give shape both to time and to space. Based on this idea, time for me becomes an essential artistic material,” (San Martin, ArtNexus 2017)

This insight has manifested itself like a common thread in the recent decades of Bravo’s oeuvre. Throughout the expansion of Monika’s work, her approach to her recurring themes (time, space, perception) shifts every time departing from slightly different viewpoints. Sometimes scientific, philosophical, ancestral, and spiritual but always with the notion of ‘duration’ at its core, where ‘time’ is the catalyst for the manifestation of life. Ultimately speaking about the most essential: observation as a practice to understand the human condition, hence revealing the direction in which humankind has its own aspiration towards (r)evolution and clarity.

“I am no longer a seeker of truth, I embody my own perspective. I synthesized my unique vision by embracing all disciplines into one, creating a reality that matches my desire to evolve. At times, they are environments that contain mesmerizing images in purpose for public spaces, at times, I create intimate actions between myself and other beings when I reveal their life purpose through an astrological reading, at times, I offer talks or workshops.

My essence is to connect, communicate and inspire other beings to be themselves. I enjoy directing and producing diverse projects, from complex multimedia installations and public art commissions to artists’ books and textile design, thus I see no boundaries between the applied and fine arts. The only revolution is to be one self- I don't want to be right, I am of service"

BILD_OBJEKT, 2016, on surface, materiality format and its limits, layers of materials

ARCHETYPES- the sound of the word beyond sense, 2015, 75” monitors, double side color wood panels 2.5 x 4 mts each, glass, lamination, projection, media players sd cards. 56th Venice Biennale, Vatican Pavilion.

URUMU _ weaving_time, 2015, six 70 " screens, media players, SD cards. Colpatria Building Bogota

TESSERAE, 2017, Vertical, 70″ monitors, projectors, plexiglass, masking tape, wood, paint, media player, SD card

15 mins. Johannes Vogt NY and Saro Leon, Canary Islands and Flora Ars Natura, Bogota

DURATION, 2017, glass mosaic and printed ceramic, 5 glass mosaic murals along the platforms each mural, 4 feet by 27 ft wide. Prospect Ave station Brooklyn, NY

TIMELESS, 2019, 30 multi-channel mapped projections on softwalls, Spring Studios New York, NY

Landscape of belief, 2012