Esteban Jaramillo and Galería La Cometa: A Legacy of Latin American Art on the Global Stage

Esteban Jaramillo is a Colombian art dealer best known as the founder and director of Galería La Cometa, one of the most enduring and influential contemporary art galleries to emerge from Latin America. Since its establishment in 1986 in Bogotá, Colombia, La Cometa has played a pivotal role in promoting artists from Colombia and the wider region to international audiences.

• Trayectoria: Abierta desde 1986, es una de las galerías más antiguas de Colombia en arte contemporáneo.
• Artistas: Representa figuras icónicas (Amaral, Bursztyn) y emergentes, mostrando diversidad de estilos.
• Alcance: Con sedes en Bogotá, Madrid y Miami, ha expandido la visibilidad del arte colombiano globalmente.
• Enfoque: Conecta arte moderno y contemporáneo, utilizando materiales diversos como papel, madera y tierra, y explorando temas sociales y culturales. 

Origins and Vision

La Cometa began as a project dedicated to creating meaningful dialogue between artists, their work, and the public. From the very beginning, Esteban Jaramillo envisioned the gallery as more than a commercial space; it was to be a cultural institution that fosters understanding, appreciation, and exchange around contemporary art. Over nearly four decades, this vision has helped the gallery build a reputation for curatorial rigor and artistic relevance.

Expansion and International Presence

Under Jaramillo’s leadership, La Cometa expanded beyond Colombia, establishing strategic locations in Medellín and Bogotá, and later in Madrid, Spain and Miami, United States. This global footprint has positioned the gallery as an international platform for Latin American artists, connecting collectors, curators, and institutions across continents.

The Miami location opened after a period of renovation and was welcomed as part of the city’s growing cultural ecosystem, especially during art fairs and Miami’s vibrant contemporary art scene. Jaramillo has personally guided visitors through exhibitions, reflecting his hands‑on involvement in how the gallery engages with its audience.

Mission and Curatorial Focus

Galería La Cometa is known for championing Latin American artistic voices while situating them within broader global conversations. Its program consistently includes artists whose work intersects with key contemporary themes—identity, memory, environment, materiality, and social experience. The gallery’s roster and exhibitions have showcased the work of significant figures in modern and contemporary art, broadening awareness of the region’s contributions to global art history.

The gallery’s exhibitions are designed to create dialogue—not only between artworks and viewers but also between generations of creators and cultural contexts. This emphasis on connection and exchange echoes Jaramillo’s original intent to facilitate relationships that deepen understanding and appreciation.

Family and Collaborative Leadership

While Esteban Jaramillo remains at the helm as founder and director, Galería La Cometa has also evolved into a family‑oriented enterprise. Members of the Jaramillo family, including his siblings and children, are involved in the gallery’s operations and leadership, contributing to its expansion and international outreach. This dynamic reflects both tradition and adaptation, blending experience with new perspectives in expanding markets like Europe and the United States.

Impact and Legacy

Esteban Jaramillo’s work with La Cometa has helped shape the trajectory of Latin American art in global contexts. The gallery’s enduring presence—from its roots in Bogotá to its spaces in Miami and Madrid—demonstrates a commitment to sustained artistic engagement and cultural exchange. More than three decades after its founding, Galería La Cometa continues to be a force in contemporary art, amplifying voices and fostering connections that stretch across borders. galerialacometa.com+1

Color and Perception: The Subjective Experience of Light

Color does not exist in the physical world in the same way we experience it. What we call “color” is actually a sophisticated construction of our brain, an interpretation of different wavelengths of light that impact our retina. This reality raises one of the most fascinating questions in neuroscience and philosophy: do we all experience color in the same way?

The Physics of Color

When sunlight passes through a prism, it breaks down into the visible spectrum we know as a rainbow. Each “color” corresponds to a specific wavelength: red has longer waves (approximately 700 nanometers), while violet has the shortest (around 380 nanometers). But these numbers have no color in themselves; they are simply electromagnetic frequencies traveling through space.

The Mechanism of Perception

Our eyes contain specialized cells called cones, of which we have three types. Each type is sensitive to different wavelength ranges: one responds primarily to red, another to green, and another to blue. When light enters our eye, these cones activate in different combinations and degrees, sending electrical signals to the brain. It is in the visual cortex where the real magic happens: the brain interprets these patterns of neural activation and creates the conscious experience of color.

Variations in Perception

Not all people perceive color identically. Color blindness, which primarily affects men, results from deficiencies in one or more types of cones. People with deuteranomaly, the most common form, have difficulty distinguishing between reds and greens. But even among people with “normal” color vision, there are subtle variations in perception.

A particularly intriguing phenomenon is tetrachromacy, a condition in which some people, primarily women, possess a fourth type of cone. These people can theoretically distinguish up to 100 million different colors, compared to the million perceived by a typical person. For a tetrachromat, a sunset is not simply orange and purple, but a symphony of hues that the rest of us cannot even imagine.

Context is Everything

Color perception is profoundly contextual. The same hue can appear completely different depending on the colors surrounding it, a phenomenon known as simultaneous contrast. The dress that divided the internet in 2015, which some people saw as blue and black while others swore it was white and gold, demonstrated how our brain makes assumptions about ambient lighting that dramatically affect our perception of color.

Cultural and Linguistic Influences

The way we categorize and name colors is also shaped by our culture and language. Some languages have dozens of words for different shades of what we would simply call “blue,” while others do not linguistically distinguish between what we call “blue” and “green.” Research suggests that these linguistic differences can influence how we perceive and remember colors, although the debate about the extent to which language shapes perception continues.

The Philosophical Problem of Qualia

This brings us to one of the deepest enigmas of consciousness: the problem of qualia. How can I know if my subjective experience of red is the same as yours? We might agree to call the same wavelength of light “red,” but the internal experience, the “redness” of red, could be completely different for each of us. This problem illustrates the gap between objective description and subjective experience, a chasm that science has not yet fully bridged.

Conclusion

Color reveals the collaborative nature of perception. It is not simply something that is “out there” in the world, waiting to be discovered. It is an active construction, an interpretation that our brain creates from raw sensory data. This reality does not make color any less real or less important; on the contrary, it reminds us that conscious experience is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the universe. Every time we admire a rainbow or choose paint for a room, we are participating in an incredibly complex neural process that transforms electromagnetic waves into the rich palette of experiences that color our lives.

CROSSING BORDERS with
Alejandro Caiazza at Van Der Plas Gallery NYC

By José Gregorio Noroño

The Van Der Plas Gallery on the Lower East Side of New York City focuses on promoting and disseminating artistic production that departs from the precepts of traditional art, which is why it is considered a space to house artists interested in exploring unconventional fields of art.

Since December 12, Van Der Plas has been presenting the group exhibition “Crossing Borders” in its spaces; an event in which Alejandro Caiazza participates along with other artists, such as Al Diaz, Antony Zito, Wendall (FA-Q), Marc Bell, Susan Day, The Green Lady of Brooklyn (Elizabeth Sweetheart), and others. This group of artists operates within the visual discourse of contemporary, marginal, and street art. On this occasion, they come together to exhibit, through their works, the challenging idea of ​​transcending the limits or borders that exist between the different horizons of human endeavor, such as the boundaries of our perception. In this way, they induce the viewer to question their surroundings: to challenge the political and cultural boundaries related to themes such as identity, migration, and cultural borders, as well as to transcend the limits of art, exploring and experimenting beyond technical, formal, and conceptual confines.

Among these visual creators who challenged existing limits in the realms of perception, politics, culture, and art, Alejandro Caiazza’s artistic proposal stands out in the context of “Crossing Borders.” This artist boasts a distinguished career, including exhibitions in various galleries and museums, such as Van Der Plas, the gallery that represents him, where he has held several solo shows.

In his pursuit of transcending borders, Caiazza has consolidated a style influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Georg Baselitz, in which art brut, bad paint, neo-expressionism, pop art, outsider art, and street art flow, combine, and condense. In keeping with his artistic experimentation, Caiazza works with a mixed media technique, layering traditional and unconventional artistic processes such as painting, drawing, and collage. In this case, he incorporates fabrics, buttons, plastic or metal mesh, wire, and textile patterns, allowing him to create visually rich compositions characterized by their gestural quality, chromatic expressiveness, and material treatment. His themes, permeated by satire and irony, address social criticism, politics, individual and collective identity, and the issues of migration.

Ultimately, through this exhibition, “Crossing Borders,” Caiazza and the artists in this collective, starting from the concept that unites them (challenging limits), aim to generate profound reflection in the viewer.

@alejandro_caiazza

AlejandroCaiazza.com

The Artistry of Fiber: Exploring Rugs, Carpets, and Textiles as Fine Art

For millennia, humans have transformed humble fibers into objects of extraordinary beauty and cultural significance. Rugs, carpets, and textiles represent one of humanity’s oldest art forms, yet they often occupy an ambiguous space in the art world—simultaneously functional and decorative, utilitarian and sacred, craft and fine art. These fiber-based creations deserve recognition not merely as home furnishings but as profound artistic expressions that weave together technical mastery, cultural identity, and aesthetic vision.

The Ancient Roots of Textile Art

Textile creation predates recorded history. Archaeological evidence suggests that humans were spinning fibers and weaving fabric as early as 27,000 years ago. The oldest known knotted-pile carpet, the Pazyryk Carpet, dates to the 5th century BCE and was discovered remarkably preserved in a Siberian tomb. Its intricate patterns and sophisticated technique reveal that even in ancient times, textile creation had evolved far beyond mere necessity into the realm of art.

These early textiles weren’t simply practical items—they were repositories of meaning. Patterns encoded genealogies, myths, and cosmologies. Colors carried symbolic weight. The very act of creation was often ritualistic, with knowledge passed down through generations like precious heirlooms.

Technical Mastery: The Foundation of Fiber Art

Creating a rug or textile requires extraordinary technical skill that rivals any traditional art form. Weavers must master multiple disciplines simultaneously: they are mathematicians calculating pattern repeats, engineers understanding structural integrity, chemists mixing dyes, and artists composing color and form.

Consider the Persian carpet weaver who might tie hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of individual knots to create a single masterwork. Each knot must be precisely placed, with consistent tension, to build up an image that exists nowhere except in the weaver’s mind and hands. The density of knots can reach 500 or more per square inch in the finest examples, approaching the resolution of a painting.

Similarly, tapestry weavers work from the reverse side of their creation, building images they cannot fully see until completion. Textile artists working with natural dyes must understand the chemistry of mordants, the seasonal variations in plant materials, and the unpredictable alchemy of color development.

Cultural Narratives Woven in Fiber

Textiles serve as cultural texts, encoding the histories, beliefs, and identities of the communities that create them. Navajo rugs incorporate spiritual symbols and clan patterns, each weaving telling a story about the maker’s lineage and worldview. Turkish kilims use geometric motifs that have remained remarkably consistent for centuries, preserving ancient symbolic languages. African kente cloth uses specific color combinations and patterns to denote social status, commemorate historical events, or mark ceremonial occasions.

These works function as living museums, preserving cultural knowledge that might otherwise be lost. The patterns of Turkmen tribal rugs, for instance, serve as visual genealogies, with each tribe maintaining distinctive guls (medallions) that identify their makers as surely as a signature. When we look at these textiles, we’re not simply observing decorative objects—we’re reading complex cultural documents.

Contemporary Fiber Art: Breaking Boundaries

In recent decades, artists have pushed fiber-based art into bold new territories, challenging the hierarchies that once placed painting and sculpture above textile work. Artists like Anni Albers, who came from the Bauhaus tradition, elevated weaving to modernist abstraction. Her geometric compositions in thread possess the same rigor and innovation as the paintings of her contemporaries.

Contemporary artists continue this evolution. Faith Ringgold’s story quilts merge African American quilting traditions with narrative painting and political commentary. El Anatsui transforms discarded bottle caps into shimmering, tapestry-like sculptures that hang like fabric but gleam like precious metal. Ghada Amer embroiders pornographic imagery with delicate thread, subverting expectations about “women’s work” and confronting taboos around sexuality.

These artists demonstrate that fiber-based art can address any subject, embody any aesthetic, and claim space in the most prestigious galleries and museums worldwide.

The Sensory Dimension

Fiber art engages viewers in ways that painting and sculpture cannot fully replicate. Textiles possess a tactile dimension that invites touch—the nap of velvet, the rough texture of jute, the cool smoothness of silk. Even when we don’t physically touch them, our bodies remember these sensations, creating an embodied response to the work.

The scale of carpets and tapestries also creates unique spatial experiences. A large carpet transforms a room, defining space and creating warmth in ways that are simultaneously practical and aesthetic. Tapestries can function as architectural elements, softening acoustics while commanding visual attention. This integration of art into lived space represents one of fiber art’s distinctive contributions to human experience.

The Labor of Love and Time

Perhaps no aspect of fiber art speaks more powerfully than the sheer investment of time and labor each piece represents. A master weaver might spend months or years creating a single carpet. Every inch represents hours of focused attention, physical skill, and creative decision-making.

This temporal dimension becomes part of the artwork’s meaning. In our age of rapid production and instant gratification, a hand-knotted rug stands as a monument to patience, dedication, and the value of slow, careful work. The irregularities that distinguish handmade textiles from machine-made copies—the slight variations in tension, the occasional color shift—become marks of human presence, proof that a person sat for countless hours bringing beauty into existence.

Preservation and Appreciation

Museums and collectors increasingly recognize the artistic merit of textiles, though challenges remain. Fiber art is inherently fragile, vulnerable to light, moisture, and wear. Conservation requires specialized knowledge and resources. Many historical textiles exist in museum storage rather than on display, their fragility limiting public access to these treasures.

Yet this vulnerability also reminds us of art’s impermanence. Unlike bronze or marble, textiles age and eventually return to the earth. This transience connects them to other ephemeral art forms and to the human condition itself—everything beautiful is also temporary.

Conclusion: Reweaving the Narrative

Rugs, carpets, and textiles challenge us to reconsider what we value as art. They blur boundaries between craft and fine art, function and aesthetics, tradition and innovation. They remind us that some of humanity’s most profound artistic achievements have been made by anonymous hands, passed from generation to generation, created in homes rather than studios.

As we continue to grapple with questions about cultural appreciation, craft hierarchies, and the definition of art itself, fiber-based works offer important lessons. They teach us that art doesn’t require a gallery wall or a famous signature to be meaningful. They show us that beauty can be functional, that tradition can be radical, and that some of our most intimate daily objects—the carpets we walk on, the textiles that warm us—deserve our sustained attention and deepest appreciation.

In the end, these fiber arts weave together the fundamental human need to create meaning through making, to leave something beautiful behind, and to connect past and future through the continuous thread of artistic expression.

Robert Mnuchin, Goldman Sachs Power Broker Turned Leading New York Art Dealer, Dies at 92

The article by Katya Kazakina on artnet.com offers a thoughtful and compelling tribute to Robert Mnuchin, a towering figure whose life bridged two very different worlds: high finance and the international art market. Titled “Robert Mnuchin, Investment Banker Who Became Leading New York Art Dealer, Dies at 92,” the piece provides readers not only with the facts of his passing but with a nuanced portrait of a man who shaped the art world as we know it.

Kazakina opens with the news of Mnuchin’s death at age 92 at his home in Bridgewater, Connecticut, grounding the article with reverence and clarity. Her reporting places his death in context, noting confirmation from family and recognition from major outlets like The New York Times. This sets the tone for a respectful and detailed life story that follows.

The article excels in showing the breadth of Mnuchin’s remarkable career. Before he became a major art dealer, Mnuchin was a Goldman Sachs pioneer—a central figure in the rise of block trading during the 1960s and 70s. Kazakina reports how industry insiders once called him “the acknowledged dean of block traders.” His deep analytical instincts, encyclopedic memory, and market savvy made him a legendary force on Wall Street. This rich background context gives readers insight into the skills that later helped him excel in a completely different field.

What makes the piece particularly strong is how it traces his transition from finance to art—a shift that surprised many. Instead of remaining in his comfort zone, Mnuchin pursued his passion and launched a gallery after retiring from Goldman Sachs. Kazakina smartly captures his own reflection on that decision: he wanted to test “whether his success came from his own abilities or the institution behind him.” This personal insight enriches the narrative, showing his courage and independence.

The article also highlights his reputation in the auction room. Hardly a mere observer, Mnuchin was a formidable bidder. Kazakina recounts his famous acquisition of Jeff Koons’s Rabbit in 2019 for $91.1 million on behalf of a client, a record for a living artist. The detail about his cream-colored jacket and flip phone at the auction humanizes the moment and reflects his unique presence in the art world.

Kazakina does not shy away from personal dimensions, mentioning his family—including his son Steven Mnuchin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary—while also making clear that Robert Mnuchin himself generally steered clear of politics. Instead, he was defined by colleagues as modest, disciplined, and deeply committed to the arts.

The narrative is thoughtfully rounded out with biographical details—from his upbringing in Manhattan and Scarsdale, through Yale and the Army, to his long life spent immersed in art and culture. The article balances milestones in his professional life with personal context, giving a complete sense of the man behind the market influence.

Importantly, Kazakina also notes Mnuchin’s evolving approach to gallery representation, including expanding shows to feature more female artists and artists of color. This demonstrates how he continued to grow with the art world, rather than remaining static or narrowly focused.

In capturing Mnuchin’s final years, Kazakina shows that his passion never faded. He worked despite physical challenges, remained involved in gallery exhibitions, and expressed unabashed love for what he did: “I’d be lost without it.” Such reflections lend emotional resonance to the piece without overstatement.

Overall, Kazakina’s article is both informative and reflective. It offers a richly detailed tribute to a complex figure who shaped the art market through personal conviction, business acumen, and deep engagement with art. For anyone interested in art history, auction culture, or the evolution of the modern art market, this obituary is both a fitting memorial and a compelling lesson.