Esteban Ocampo-Gilrado

ZieherSmith debuted Latin American painter Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo in a group show in 2016, followed by a solo presentation in 2017. He received his MFA from the New York Academy of Art and was selected as a Chubb Fellow, before returning to Bogota, Colombia where he now lives and works.

His large, technically facile canvases depict scenes drawn from memory and nostalgia merging with grittier allusions to adult life. In deliberate contrast to widely held stereotypes about Colombia, Ocampo-Giraldo celebrates simple moments that reflect small town pleasures. At the same time, these seemingly innocent road trips, swimming pools, ping pong games and soccer matches are filled with chaotic masses of adults, painted, at times, with a raw expressionist roughness or, as here, an aloof non-specificity. As youthful distractions merge with adult realities, the tone of the narrative is left to interpretation.

Group exhibition: Art Can’t Love You, 2022

Solo exhibition: Twenty-Nine Primaveras, 2017