Nicolás Cadavid’s connection to art began at a very young age. He grew up surrounded by encyclopedias on painting and art history, thanks to his father, a book seller, who always kept copies of those that marked history, and among canvases, thanks to his mother, who gave him watercolors so he could capture the art that was born within him and celebrated his first attempts.
In his innocence and at a young age, when he was just exploring his hobbies, he knew who Picasso, Van Gogh, and Da Vinci were. “I would paint and say I was Picasso,” he recalls with a half-smile.
However, pursuing a professional career in art was not initially an option. When he finished school, he decided to enroll in the Industrial Design program at the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), but that wasn’t enough. He wanted a career where he could tell stories through images, so he decided to study Fine Arts (now Plastic Arts) at the same institution. At first, it may not have been an easy decision, but today he is certain that it was the wisest decision of his life.
“Since I was a child, I have been associated with art, with how I could tell stories through images. I have loved the plastic arts since I was very young,” says Nicolás.
Moreover, art runs in his veins, as both his paternal and maternal families include artists. His mother had a ceramics store, his maternal grandfather was a painter, and he has cousins who are poets and musicians.
Art of the territory
He graduated in 2005 and over the last two decades has enjoyed a highly successful professional career. His work has been exhibited in Medellín, Cartagena, Bogotá, Spain, Asia, and Guatemala, among other places.
“I had the opportunity to do residencies in Spain, Kyrgyzstan, a country in Central Asia, as well as in Guatemala, Argentina, and Chile. I have been invited to participate in exhibitions in the United States and Morocco,” says the artist from Bucaramanga.
His latest work, entitled Réquiem, was presented at the Macaregua Hall of the Industrial University of Santander, Bucarica campus. It was an exhibition that invited deep reflection on memory, violence, and the Colombian landscape.
Although the work addresses political violence in Colombia based on three massacres that took place in Santander during the last decades of the 20th century, Nicolás clarifies that he does not like to relate it to the armed conflict, but rather thinks more about the territory associated with the landscape.
“Of course, violent events occurred, but in my opinion, they trigger a series of interpretive possibilities about the landscape, the territory, in the form of scars. For a long time, I have been interested in working with landscapes that remind us of themes associated with terror. Sometimes from a purely natural perspective, such as volcanoes and earthquakes, and other times involving human intervention, as in the case of Réquiem,” says the artist from Bucaramanga.
This work, which is the result of the Artistic Creation Grant for artists with extensive experience awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Knowledge, is an idea that had been on his mind for years. However, he did not want to fall into the explicit representation of massacres or the exploitation of suffering that sometimes dominates the visual arts, he says.
Accompanied by a friend of his, a historian from the UIS, whose research helped him better understand the landscape as a witness, he explored trips to territories that have historically borne the brunt of violence: Barrancabermeja, Simacota, Cimitarra.
The creation of this exhibition took approximately six months. His creative refuge was a rented workshop located in Floridablanca. The result was an unparalleled success and was very well received by visitors to the exhibition, who traveled through history via unique pieces.
He knows that making a living from art is not easy and that it is a profession that has its seasons, that it is an exercise in endurance, of triumphs that last for a season but stay with you for a lifetime.
“Changes happen because you are judicious about what you do and are constantly seeking to improve. You are constantly looking not only at what is happening on the contemporary art scene, but also at yourself, trying to understand what you have to do. So, I think it’s an exercise in self-knowledge, in being very honest with yourself, in not seeking to please others or jump on the bandwagon of whatever is fashionable, and in being true to yourself. I think that being true to yourself in these cases is vital,” says Nicolás.
He enjoys his profession, although he knows it’s not easy, because after months of putting together an exhibition, it’s impossible not to feel a void about what the next step will be or to look for a new opportunity.
“With the visual arts, you can do anything you set your mind to and bring everything you imagine to life. I think that’s fantastic. For me, that’s the magic of this profession. Everything can start with a small dot on a sheet of paper, a word, a phrase, and then that develops and becomes an idea, a more concrete concept, which then becomes an object or an image,” he explains.
An education marked by discipline
Nicolás graduated with a degree in Fine Arts, an academic program now called Plastic Arts offered by IPRED-UIS. He also has a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the University of Chile.
He says that UIS trained him with professional research rigor in his work. “That atmosphere of research and academic rigor had a huge impact on me. Being a graduate of UIS has put me in a position of self-imposed demands. Of course, no one at the university has forced me to do so, but I have been aware of the weight of carrying that title, in a good way.”
IPRED-UIS Plastic Arts seeks to train teachers in the plastic arts, with creative abilities to perceive from their experiences with the world and social issues, elements to transform and return to the community artistic products and projects that invite aesthetic experience and reflection. In addition, it offers knowledge and tools for those who wish to participate in the construction and development of artistic and cultural projects, and stimulates research and production in the field of art.
Create during the day, think at night
He likes to work during the day, as he finds it easier to create when the sun is shining; however, it is in the moonlight that he thinks about his new artistic works.
“At night, ideas often come to me, whether from a conversation with someone, something I see on the street, a meeting I attend, or a movie I watch before going to sleep; but mornings are when I put them into practice,” he says.
After each exhibition, he knows he must relax his mind and body so that he can return with new ideas and train, often in the solitude of his studio in Bogotá, where he has lived for five years.
“Painting in small formats or drawing helps me relax, as does thinking a lot about what the exhibition was like, the certainties it leaves me with, and how I can capitalize on them in objects. because lately I’ve been doing large-scale, large-format works, and that can’t be produced easily because you need resources, a team, or time, and I don’t have that right now,” reiterates the UIS graduate, who works with whatever he has at hand in the solitude of his studio. “In art, you can’t stand still. It’s like an athlete; you have to move your body. Artists have to constantly exercise their creative muscles,” he says.
Nicolás has a long road ahead of him in the art world. For now, he is planning how he will surprise audiences with new exhibitions and where his exhibitions will be held.
