Jorge Bernardo Lopera Doncel
Seeds of Hope
2023
White earthenware, luscious black and maiolica glaze, rutile oxide and gold luster
5” x 11” x 6”
Artist statement
In this ceramic sculpture, the artist explores seeds as a metaphor for hope. Around the year 2000, the Colombian government launched a project to replace cultivated coca plants with cacao trees, to help the cultivators move away from the implications of cocaine production. In his sculpture, Lopera uses slabs to make the whole body of the cacao bean, the cover, and the seeds. He thinks fruits are the perfect form to represent a vessel keeping something precious inside. The external textured white shape depicts solemnity and evokes wood. He makes the beans black and white for contrast and to show that not all the seeds will grow as trees. Finally, the rutile oxide and gold luster finishing connect with the idea of preciousness and treasure.
Artist’s biography
Jorge Lopera recently completed a major in Fine Arts at Concordia University in Montréal. He also studied literature, jewelry, and silversmithing in Bogota. He makes sense of the world through written language, painting, and sculpture, using clay, metal, wood, stone, found objects, egg tempera, and oil painting. Lopera wrote a book of stories about everyday life (Doce, 2017) and developed jewelry collections based on abstractions of animals and plants. For him, the creative act is a cycle between receiving and giving. He has exhibited works in Fresh Paint (a Concordia University, 2023); XXII Primavera (House of Culture, Cajica, 2014); Five Notions of Art (Pueblo Viejo Country Club, Art and Space Gallery, Bogota, 2013); C.C. Identify Yourself with Your Work (Casa Ensamble, Bogota, 2011); and presented in the magazine Ezine, Creativos Colombianos ( Bogota, 2007).
