STATEMENT
In my work, I explore the relationships between memory, image, and perception, particularly within the contexts of migration and displacement. From my perspective, personal archives, everyday objects, and the spaces I inhabit serve as sensitive records in the construction of identity, especially when decontextualized and shifted across different supports.
I do not view the image as a closed or merely representational document, but as an open space for interpretation. Following this logic, each piece becomes an exercise in montage where individual and collective memory coexist.
These interests stem from two pivotal experiences: isolation during the pandemic and my migration to Vancouver, Canada. Both processes prompted me to reconsider my relationship with my surroundings and carve out a sense of place in a city interwoven with diverse cultures, architectures, and ways of living. Geographic displacement sharpened my gaze and solidified observation as a sustained practice.
In developing my work, I engage theoretical references such as Susan Sontag and Georges Didi-Huberman, which allow me to approach the image beyond its representational function—as a field for reading and resignification. I also find affinities with artists like Sophie Calle and Annette Messager, whose practices use personal experience as a starting point for broader reflections on memory and affect.
I work with photographs that I intervene through embroidery, layers of color, transparencies, and other manual processes, emphasizing the materiality of the image and questioning its status as a record. In parallel, I collect fragments from my environment—urban reflections, natural cycles, flowers, and discarded objects—that I incorporate as visual units into an ever-evolving archive.
Rather than constructing a closed narrative, I seek for the pieces to function as an open correspondence, a continuous exchange between image, matter, and experience. Through collections of stamps, prints, and found objects, I establish connections to the experience of displacement and the overlapping languages and sounds of the city.
BIO
Isabel Tobón is a visual artist born in 1978 in Medellín, Colombia, and currently based in Vancouver, Canada. She studied Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia, Medellín campus, where she received several honors for academic excellence, including tuition refunds for achieving the highest grade point average in multiple semesters.
She has participated in group exhibitions in Canada, including at the Anvil Centre in New Westminster and during the city’s Cultural Crawl. In Colombia, she was selected for two editions of the Biennial of the Colombian Photography Salon, where she won second place in 2000 with her work Dame una Mano.
She is the creator of the digital project @360artchallenge, a participatory platform focused on the practice of visual observation. Isabel currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
CV
EDUCATION
1996-2001 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Universidad Nacional de Colombia sede Medellín. Medellín, Colombia.
2025 Portfolio building and self-promotion workshop online. Catalina Restrepo art office.
2015 Course Photography and lighting, Academia Yurupary. Medellín, Colombia.
1999 Seminar “Plural Aesthetics of Nature”. Professor Pere Salabert. BibliotecaPública Piloto. Medellín,
Colombia.
1998 Seminar “Figures of the City”. Professor Pere Salabert. Suramericana. Medellín, Colombia.
1998 Theater Course, Professor Alberto Sierra. Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. Medellín, Colombia.
1997 Seminar “Images and Non-Images”. Professor Pere Salabert. Biblioteca Pública Piloto. Medellín,
Colombia.
1997 Meeting of Critics, Architects, and Urbanists. “Art and City”. Palacio de exposiciones y convenciones
de Medellín. Medellín, Colombia.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 New West Cultural Crawl, Anvil Centre. New Westminster, BC, Canada.
Heart of the Crawl, Anvil Centre. New Westminster, BC, Canada.
2024 Voces de amor propio, Britania art gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
New West Cultural Crawl, Anvil Centre. New Westminster, BC, Canada.
Art New West Monochrome Exhibition, Anvil Centre. New Westminster, BC, Canada.
2014 Colombian Photography Salon, Biennial 2014.Cámara de Comercio de Medellín, sede centro. Medellín,
Colombia.
2001 Degree exhibition in Fine Arts, Sede alterna Sociedad Antioqueña de Arquitectos, Cerro Nutibara.
Medellín, Colombia.
2000 Colombian Photography Salon, Biennal 2000, Suramericana. Medellín, Colombia.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
2020 Selected for the Plataform ENFOQUE CONECTA first, Revista Enfoque VisuAL. Colombia.
2014 Selected for the Colombian Photography Salon, Biennial 2014.Cámara de Comercio de Medellín, sede
centro. Medellín, Colombia.
2001 Distinction for outstanding academic performance, class of September 28, 2001. Universidad Nacional
de Colombia Sede Medellín. Medellín, Colombia.
2000 Selected and Second prize in the color photography category, ColombianPhotography Salon, Biennal
2000, Suramericana. Medellín, Colombia.
1995 – 2001 Tuition refund for highest average in semesters 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9. Universid Nacional de Colombia
Sede Medellín. Medellín, Colombia.
PRESS
2020 Plataform ENFOQUE CONECTA, Revista Enfoque Visual. Bogota, Colombia.
2000 September 11, Pedazos de realidad, Newspaper El Mundo, Medellín, Colombia.
Colombian Photography Salon, Biennal 2000, Newspaper El Colombiano, Medellin,
Colombia.
PUBLICATIONS
2025 Catalog New West Cultural Crawl, New Westminster, BC, Canada.
2024 Catalog New West Cultural Crawl, New Westminster, BC, Canada.
Catalog Voces de amor propio, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
2014 Catalog Colombian Photography Salon, Biennal 2014. Medellín, Colombia.
2000 Catalog Colombian Photography Salon, Biennal 2000. Medellín, Colombia.
COLLECTIONS
Club fotográfico de Medellín. Medellín, Colombia.