Samuel Sarmiento
Samuel Sarmiento (1987) is a self-taught Venezuelan artist who lives and works in Aruba. He undertook a Master’s in Artistic Production at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain, in 2010. He has participated in various individual and collective exhibitions in The Netherlands, the United States, Spain, Greece, Aruba, Venezuela, Argentina, and China.
His artistic practice investigates the narrative and hermeneutic capacity of contemporary drawing, its connection with Caribbean oral traditions, and learning mechanisms based on orality.
He uses ceramics to construct allegorical objects and semiotic devices, erect images related to historical processes, extractivism, identity, reproducibility, migration, and mimesis.
Read moreIn his own words, Sarmiento explains: “I take a particular interest in the study of history, inquiring into historical events as a way to understand and reinterpret problems inherent to human survival, as well as identifying the exchanges and transatlantic connections that have linked humankind different levels.
Similarly, I believe in the investigative capacity of art and the inherent ability of an artistic object to communicate the reality of its time, objects functioning as witnesses of phenomena and events, thus preserving information and knowledge for future generations.
I am interested in the expressive and narrative possibilities of ceramics, a medium capable of communicating contemporary discourses through different techniques but maintaining a heritage that can easily be associated with artisanal crafts that evoke a reconnection with the earth in an era of digital media.”
Sarmiento has participated in artistic residencies such as The Bakehouse Art Complex Residency Program (Miami, USA), Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts Residency Program (Maine, USA), Caribbean Linked VI – Ateliers 89 (Oranjestad, Aruba) and BijlmAIR artist in residence program organized by CBK Zuidoost (Amsterdam, NL) with the support of Bradwolff Projects and Stedelijk Museum. In 2022, He had the opportunity to have a time of creation in Yaddo Residency (Saratoga Springs – NY, USA), a space with a long history and tradition that has had among its attendees artists such as Clyfford Still, Truman Capote, Philip Guston, Helen Frankenthaler and David Foster Wallace, among others.
