About John Nomesqui

John Nomesqui finished his studies of fine arts at the National University of Colombia in 2015. While still a university student, he traveled for the first time to the Colombian Amazon to develop an arts internship at the National University of Colombia, headquarters of Leticia (Amazonas). There he had his first contact with the nature, culture and textile knowledge of that region, which included devising and configuring an artistic installation. In 2006, he began his role as a teacher of fine arts, an opportunity that since then has allowed him to interweave and think from artistic practice and teaching practice about ecology and sustainability. In 2009, he won a creation scholarship in the national internship modality granted by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Colombia. This internship allowed him to travel again to the Colombian Amazon, this time to develop the Research and Creation Project in art: El tejido: vestidos de pensamiento (The Textile: Thought Dresses). There, the artist learned weaving techniques and the use of an artisan loom under the guidance of the Colombian master weaver and sculptor Nirko Ernesto Andrade García.

The purpose of John Nomesqui‘s artistic research consisted of making a journey through the techniques of weaving inside and outside the loom under the observation of natural elements such as “lianas” (typical material of the Amazon region), then moving on to fibers and other materials of the region with which basketry techniques or volume weaving are worked. This knowledge contributed to give shape and consistency to the idea of ​​using paper threads to make textiles that could later be used in the elaboration of three-dimensional sculptures and that later shaped his idea of ​​repairing the native forest based on textile knowledge.

Since 2006, the work of John Nomesqui has been showed at different art events, among which are the last two versions of the Bogota International Art Fair (ARTBO); national art events in his country such as: 45 Salón Nacional de artistas (45 National Artists Salon, 15th (Orinoco / Amazon Area) and 16th (Central Area) of the Regional Artists Salon. He has participated in various group exhibitions and held individual exhibitions in which the curatorial line raises the need to repair nature as a matter of artistic inquiry. This is the case of the sculptural installation “Árboles telar” (Loom trees), a work selected for the exhibition “Art in Context” held at the art gallery of the Gerardo Arango Building of the Faculty of Arts of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia) in 2019.