Juliana Vallejo is a process-focused artist. Working primarily in painting and drawing, she expresses herself on large surfaces, with many works being life-size or larger. Her approach is highly physical, regularly moving the works from the floor to the wall and back and using her bare hands and feet to apply different thicknesses of paint. The interaction between artist, medium and surface plays an essential role in her art making. Her approach to art is a constant self-exploration, a way of getting in touch with herself and digging into her subconscious mind, her buried thoughts and ideas.
Juliana’s dedication to painting pushes her to constantly explore new media, new surfaces, and new ways of expressing herself through mark making, gestures and colors. She challenges the pictorial plane and the boundaries of the images on it, their movement and their way of interacting with their surroundings. She aims to express the complexity of humanity and to provide a path for viewers to connect with the work, themselves, and others.
Juliana Vallejo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and currently lives in the Washington metropolitan area. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, where she was the recipient of the Undergraduate Research Grant for her project Abstract Experiment. As part of her practice she has completed artist residencies in Italy, Mexico, and the United States. At present she is an artist in residency at Red Dirt Studio in Mount Rainier, MD.