<pstyle=”text-align: justify;”=””>OLNEY KARVAJAL was born in the town of La Union, Valle del Cauca, Colombia in 1954. From his youth he dedicated himself to painting and in 1975, at the age of 21, he made the decision to work and develop himself as a full-time professional at his art. At that point, he decided to travel the length and breadth of Colombia, particularly the Eastern “Llanos”, offering to the towns visited his artistic services, leaving his mark in all the visited municipalities through his diverse works and murals.
In 1986, he was invited to present artworks to participate in an auction, which included works of the great Colombian masters BOTERO and OBREGON. The objective of the auction was to raise funds to construct a clinic for ELKIN PATARROYO, who later discovered at the clinic the vaccine for malaria. In 1990, Karvajal decided to settle down in Bogotá and there mounted his workshop.
In Bogotá, the artist formed a group of artisans to create what is now one of Usaquen’s most famous arts and crafts market in the rich northern part of the city. Here he has presented his works on permanent exhibition to the public and participated in its cultural committees. This market was given permanent cultural status within the city of Bogota and was also featured on Discovery Channel’s Travel & Living section as one of the top five must-see places to visit in Bogota!
In the year 2000 Karvajal celebrated the first “No Car” day in the Colombian capital with the mayor of Bogotá, Enrique Peñalosa, dedicating an artwork to the city on this theme of public importance and which appeared in the national newspapers. His work also appeared in the 2004 Bogota Book Fair where he was met by the internationally renowned Colombian artist Omar Rayo.
KARVAJAL is known for his folk style through which he depicts typical daily scenes of life in Colombia. Over the years he has developed an ample artistic portfolio considering and presenting other themes. One series he has focused on projecting was “From The Window” – which mixes typical and natural scenes in a presentation which permits the observer “enter” and directly merge himself with the artwork. However, he has developed other abstract styles which also strongly reflect his Colombian roots and the indigenous characters of its history.
<pstyle=”text-align: justify;”=””>In the last 25 years there have been few painters in Colombia with such experience and recognition as KARVAJAL. He has succeeded in integrating his life with the daily history of his country and in this way has contributed to the development of his mother land. These facts are rarely visible to the public and often stay hidden “behind the canvas”.
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