Abel Rodríguez (Nonuya, born in 1944, Cahuinarí region, Colombia; lives in Bogotá, Colombia) is a sage from the Nonuya Indigenous community of the Cahuinarí River in the Colombian Amazon. Abel has extensive ancestral knowledge of regional plants and ecosystems, transmitted to him through generations. In the 1990s, Colombian armed conflict displaced Abel from his native territory. As a way to preserve his legacy, he creates drawings that represent cultural myths and his personal memories. Now in his eighties, he is considered one of the most important living artists in Colombia.
Exhibit #21
Abel Rodríguez at Arsenal Contemporary Toronto
Abel Rodríguez is a Nonuya Elder who translates his encyclopedic knowledge of plants and trees in his homeland, the Igara Paraná River region of the Amazon, into highly detailed drawings, writings, and books. Abel came to drawing as a means of sharing the life cycles of plants and their uses for both people and animals, […]
March 26 – June 5, 2022
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