Known for her distinctive graphic style and bold palette, González’s work explores the power and impact of the images we encounter every day, probing their potential to communicate and determine how we perceive the world. Drawing from found images that she has amassed throughout her life in Colombia – ranging from tattered reproductions of revered paintings from Western art history to newspaper clippings reporting on violent murder, conflict and loss – González transforms her sources through her work. Playfully addressing the dominating influence of Western iconography, questioning socially constructed ideas of taste, confronting complex histories of violence, and paying homage to displaced communities, she reveals how images reflect power dynamics on a personal and political scale.

Challenging conventional hierarchies of value imposed on specific mediums or cultures, González experiments with myriad media, including painting, prints, furniture-objects (beds, tables and TVs), monumental painted backdrops, and large-scale installations occupying public spaces. Rooted in and responding to a specific Colombian context, her work addresses pressing concerns ranging from political violence to the climate crisis and the lives of Indigenous communities while remaining deeply resonant to contemporary global politics and speaking to universal human concerns.

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Art says things that history cannot
– Beatriz González

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This exhibition is co-produced by Pinacoteca de São Paulo (30 August 2025 –1 February 2026), Barbican, London (25 February – 10 May 2026), and Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo (12 June –11 October 2026).

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