Artists | Galería Cano · Palacio Nacional

Galería Cano opens this space to present, document and give visibility to artists whose work belongs to the history, the conversation and the evolution of Colombian art.

Artists is not a directory of names. It is an editorial space devoted to bringing the public closer to the masters — their work, their processes and the contexts that gave rise to them.

From the Palacio Nacional in Medellín, Galería Cano keeps that conversation open between heritage and the present: recognising those who built part of our artistic memory, and accompanying those who go on creating and offering new ways of seeing.

Here we gather profiles, exhibitions, publications, events, documents and works that let each artist be known beyond a single piece.

The place

Rooms of the Palacio

This conversation happens in a specific place: the fourth-floor gallery of the Palacio Nacional in Medellín. Its vaults, its light and its bronzes are the physical context in which the work of these artists is presented.

Palacio Nacional, Medellín. A room in the gallery: a bronze horse on a black plinth, paintings on the wall and the door open to the terrace. — Bronze horse. Palacio Nacional, Medellín.

Palacio Nacional, Medellín. The corridor under the painted vault, with two equestrian bronzes facing each other on black plinths. — Corridor under the painted vault. Palacio Nacional, Medellín.

Palacio Nacional, Medellín. The building's central atrium: tiers of arches and columns under the glass roof. — The atrium of the Palacio Nacional, Medellín.

In this house

Two doors

The section begins with two figures of different natures, joined by the force of their work:

01

José Cirilo Henao

A contemporary eye, a body of work in movement and a story still being written.

Open the journal 02

Rodrigo Arenas Betancourt

One of the great masters of Colombian monumental sculpture, and a figure essential to understanding much of the country's public art.

Open the page

On view

Bronzes in the room

Pieces on view in the gallery. They are shown here as context for the section, without attribution to either of the two artists above.

A dark bronze of a crouching figure on a black plinth, in the gallery of the Palacio Nacional. — Bronze on view. Galería Cano, Palacio Nacional, Medellín.

A bronze with green patina, a figure reclining over a horse, on a stone plinth in the gallery. — Bronze on view. Galería Cano, Palacio Nacional, Medellín.

Two artists. Two moments. Two ways of building memory.

This space will keep growing around the work, the research and the stories that deserve to remain visible.