In his work, Juan Camilo Uribe makes use of the language of Pop art to formulate a reflection on Colombian popular and local culture. In this interview, Uribe discusses different facets of his production such as humor, which he considers fundamental, if “accidental.” He also speaks of his method, which begins with conceptual notes that he later develops by means of commonplace religious images. He asserts that he does not consider himself irreverent even though, at a certain moment, his work was inevitably seen that way. He states, “My images demonstrate the end of a religious era as other truths based on science gain prominence every day […] For us, the Sacred Heart is more important than the atom. This contradiction, which is palpable, is what I try to make people see.”

This valuable interview with Juan Camilo Uribe (1945-2005) took place at the height of the controversy that his work incited on the Colombian art scene. 

A self-taught artist, Uribe dropped out of high school. He began to earn local recognition as a ceramicist in 1968, though he later abandoned that medium due both to his inclination for sculpture and to a lack of materials. In 1972, Uribe was awarded a mention at the III Bienal de Arte de Coltejer (Medellín) for a work produced in conjunction with Marta Elena Vélez. His art is characterized by the use of popular religious images deemed tacky by the hegemonic visual arts culture. His demystifying pieces with critical and comic implications make oblique reference to Colombia and its reality.

This interview is by artist, curator, and cultural manager Félix Ángel (b. 1949). By means of interviews with important figures, Ángel’s books Nostros. Un trabajo sobre los artistas antioqueños (1976) and Nosotros, Vosotros, Ellos. Memoria del arte en Medellín Memoria del arte en Medellín en los años 70 (2008) document the transformation experienced by the art scene of Medellín—capital of Antioquia—in the seventies. This transformation was due to the emergence of young artists opposed to the local academic tradition and determined to develop contemporary forms of expression bound to international avant-garde movements.