Exhibitions
My Mother Mountain Access Page
Table of Contents
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Poleka Kasue: Volcan Nevado Santa Isabel
This is Dedicated to the One I Love (Collection of Living and Deceased Glaciers)
Jean-Michel and Toussaint Dauphin
Topographical Map Los Nevados Páramos Ecosystem, A Páramo Bestiary
Introductory Wall Text and Audio Description
Applied to the wall is paper with black text. At the top of the page there is a heading. The heading reads: My Mother Mountain, in large bold and italic letters, then Carolyn Castaño in the same font underneath. May 29–August 8, 2026 is written in small letters underneath. A few spaces down, the text reads:
“This Chicago debut solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based Colombian American artist Carolyn Castaño brings together paintings, watercolors, and sculpture that examine the accelerating disappearance of Colombia’s Andean glaciers—and the colonial and capitalist forces behind their loss. At the beginning of the 20th century, Colombia had thirteen glaciers. Now only six remain. For almost fifteen years, Castaño has researched and made artworks that consider Colombia’s landscapes, heritage, and precarious ecologies.
In My Mother Mountain, both monumental and intimate works destabilize familiar pictorial conventions. Pattern, color, and Andean visual vocabularies disrupt the logic of colonial landscape painting, insisting on other ways of knowing—and mourning—a world being remade by industrial capitalism. Depicted in Castaño’s large-scale paintings that dialogue with the 19th century romantic landscape tradition as well as in multiple watercolors and a new video, the mountains and glaciers at the heart of her work have meaning beyond their ecological importance. They are subjects, relations, and what the exhibition’s title names: mothers.”
There is a break in the text. In smaller font at the bottom of the page, it reads:
“Support for My Mother Mountain is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the School of Art and Art History, the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, and the University of Illinois Chicago.”
AUDIO FILE OF VERBALIZED EXHIBITION WALL LABEL
Cumanday: El Nevado Del Ruiz, 2023
Watercolor, acrylic, foil, and appliqués on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
El Nevado del Ruiz, or Cumanday in the language of the Quimbaya people, is one of four glacier-topped volcanic mountains in Colombia’s Los Nevados National Natural Park. Sustained by delicate cycles of precipitation and temperature— with no winter snowfall at the equator—Colombia’s equatorial glaciers not only serve as natural thermometers of the earth but feed rivers and ecosystems that supply 75% of the country’s water. Colombia’s glaciers have lost more than 80% of their surface area in the last 100 years and are disappearing faster than the global average. Studies predict that all of Colombia’s glaciers could become extinct by the 2040s or 2050s, creating water scarcity and severely impacting the region’s unique biodiversity.
Verbal Description
This twelve foot wide painting depicts the El Nevado Del Ruiz volcano located in Colombia. The volcano is surrounded by vibrantly painted green leaves, pink and orange flowers, and a variety of animals such as a parrot, a monkey, and a rabbit. While some of the flora and fauna are painted, others are attached as sequined appliques, creating dimension and depth to the work. At the base of the mountain / in the foreground of the painting, there is a check pattern of vibrant squares, inspired by the Wiphala flag, a symbol of unity and self-determination among the Indigenous Andean peoples. On the right side of the painting, the squares of the flag are warmly colored: red, orange, and yellow; some squares are painted, but others are made of sequined and fabric appliques. On the left side, the squares are varying shades of blues. The sequins extend off of the canvas, and shimmer when you move. Most of the volcano is covered in snow. At the base of the volcano, the foothill peak is layered with brown and green, indicating plants growing at the base of the mountains. However, the slope of the leftmost mountain is brown with no snow or plants, suggesting warm temperatures and changing climates. Vibrant tassels hang from the bottom of the painting.
Chundua: Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, 2023
Watercolor, acrylic, and appliqués on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
The array of collaged elements that build Castaño’s work is wide, including acrylic, watercolor, and drawn passages, disparate brushwork, appliqués, gold foil, and fabric pieces. Castaño melds their visual dynamism to larger implications such as the layered meanings of gold in South America and the environmental impact of excessive consumerism. She says, “I was interested in collaging fabric into the landscape to create a kind of trompe l’oeil effect. A painted tree branch would open to a passage of an electric sunset with palm trees, printed in a maquiladora somewhere in Haiti or Indonesia, regions where climate impacts are so significant.” Similarly, gold holds critical meanings in South America, both for Indigenous beliefs about its links to the sun and its divine properties, and for its ongoing economic exploitation.
Verbal Description
This mixed-media work is twelve feet in width and six and a half feet in height. It hangs off the wall high enough so that the tassels connected to the bottom of the painting graze the floor. The tassels are white and ombre into deep blue, purple, green, pink, and red. A gold sequined applique of a sun radiates brilliantly in the pink and purple water color sky. The painting depicts the tropical glaciers and mountains found in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Andean mountain range. The snowy summits sit in the back center of the piece, and are framed in contrast with a bright pink sky, rainbow flowers, and vibrant green forests. The floral landscape in the foreground is decorated with sequins that pop off the canvas. Large leaves layer on top of each other in shades of forest green, turquoise, teal, and lime. The result is a rainbow of plants demonstrating the liveliness of the forest at the base of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Andean mountain range. In the layers of leaves there are appliques of butterflies, a peacock, and other birds. Amidst the flora and fauna, two faces are painted into the camouflage of the forest. The faces rest with their eyes closed and mouths open, some features are obscured by bright orange flowers or yellow butterflies. They appear to be unconscious. The faces both have beards; the strokes of their hair are light. Only their heads are visible, the rest of their bodies are covered or buried in the rainbow forest.
Poleka Kasue: Volcan Nevado Santa Isabel, 2026
Watercolor, acrylic, foil, and appliqués on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
Adopting the scale of colonial landscape paintings such as Frederick Edwin Church’s Heart of the Andes (1859), Castaño disrupts the conventions of those romantic depictions through collage, juxtaposition, vivid color, and varied brushwork and materials. Colonial landscape depictions of the 18th and 19th centuries often focused on the awe-inspiring features of the land, in many cases, highlighting resources that could be exploited for human benefit. Interrupting Eurocentric methods, Castaño prioritizes non-human life, interdependence, the holistic viewpoint of Indigenous perspectives, cultural continuity, and ecological preservation.
Verbal Description
This large 12 foot wide painting depicts the volcano named Poleka Kasue in Colombia. The volcano is in the back center of the landscape. The foremost slopes are brown, but the crater is white with snow. At the base of the mountain are smaller green foothills and a sapphire blue lake with green highlights. An organically shaped border frames the landscape with a check pattern resembling the Wiphala flag. The pattern and landscape are separated through a technique resembling gold leaf. In the check pattern, the squares range in color from red, green, white, brown, and some of the squares are made using gold leaf. The gold squares call to the sequin appliques in the foreground, consisting of small birds and butterflies. Above the volcano, there is a large sequined bird flying downward. Most of the plants in the painting are non-flowering. Those flowers that are included are pink, orange, and heavily lined. While still incredibly vibrant, the colors are more muted than the other large scale paintings throughout the exhibition. Tassels hang from the bottom of the painting: on the left side, the tassels are blue; on the right, the tassels are white; and in the middle, they are ombre.
Graphical Andes, 2026
Watercolor, acrylic, and foil on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
Throughout her work, Castaño incorporates abstracted interpretations of the relationships between the glaciers and Andean culture. A prominent example is the checkered pattern that appears in several of her works, which references Andean textiles, including the gridded Wiphala flag, a colorful symbol of unity and self-determination among Indigenous Andean peoples; the Tocapu, an Incan garment with geometric motifs used as a form of graphical communication; and traditional Wayúu mochilas, small bags made of colorful yarn woven to reflect spiritual beliefs. Castaño says, “I’m inspired by the Andean cosmovision of apu, or mountain worship.” Indigenous Andean Quimbaya names personify the mountains, such as Cumanday for Nevado del Ruiz, meaning beautiful mountain, or Poleka Kasue for Volcán Santa Isabel, meaning woman of the mountain. In some instances, Castaño’s grid colors mirror the infographic colorcoding of climatological heat maps, with shifts from blue to orange mimicking the temperature shifts in a region over time. Indigenous Colombians believe that glaciers are spirits protecting the land; receding glaciers have prompted Indigenous leaders to advocate for protection of the sacred landscapes through climate action.
Verbal Description
This nine foot wide painting calls to the Wiphala flag, a symbol of unity and self-determination among the Indigenous Andean peoples. Similar to a check pattern, each 6x6in square alternates in color. Unlike the Wiphala flag, in this painting, every other square is white; for the majority of the painting, the alternating squares rows oscillate between blue and orange, however in the bottom right corner, the blue squares shift to brown. This pattern makes up the entirety of the painting, excepting the top left corner which reveals the summit of one of Colombia’s tropical glaciers. Gold leaf separates the watercolor mountain from the check pattern, resembling torn paper. This effect results in the check pattern seeming as though it has been torn away to reveal a mountain underneath. The glacier that is revealed from behind the check pattern only has snow at its peak, the slopes of the mountain are brown.
Agua Santa (Cascada de Santa Elena), 2026
Watercolor, acrylic, and appliqués on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
While traveling back and forth between Colombia and California as a child, Castaño spent a lot of time in her mother’s town, Santa Rosa de Cabal, and soon grew fond of the waterfalls—including the Santa Elena waterfalls pictured here—and rivers that supply the town’s water. As her mother grew older, Castaño began to equate her mother with the mountains from which the waters and rivers flow: a guardian elder, as Indigenous people Andean do. Castaño says, “In many ways, this work—aside from commenting, celebrating, or bringing awareness to the glaciers or Colombian landscape—is my attempt to reconnect with that part that has been separated or dislocated, an attempt to heal or connect with a kind of immigrant longing.”
Verbal Description
In this portrait-sized painting, a yellow sun hesitates at the top of a waterfall. The yellow of the sun is so bright that it looks almost neon. The sun is partially obscured by two water colored, gray clouds collaged on top. The waterfall the sun sits atop of is gray and bleeds into a floral valley. On either side of the sun, are two green mountain peaks. The gray sky behind them is lightly painted with watercolor. Fabric appliques of flowers are collaged up and down the green mountains and floral valley. Small colorful birds are revealed throughout green leaves and orange and pink flowers. The flowers, leaves, and birds are collaged in a variety of watercolor, embroidery, and fabric.
Volcán Nevado Santa Isabel, 2023
Watercolor, acrylic, and appliqués on watercolor paper mounted on canvas
Verbal Description
This portrait-sized painting features the Volcan Nevado Santa Isabel, a volcano in Colombia. The volcano is painted in watercolor; its slopes are brown with a white summit, indicating snow only at the highest peak. Behind the mountain, the sky is royal blue. The mountain and sky are the backmost layer of the painting. Collaged on top is a forest-scene with teal and dark green leaves. Handpainted neon orange, pink, and yellow flowers lay on top of the green fauna. Sequined and fabric appliques of butterflies float in the forest, alongside resting parrots and active hummingbirds. Above the mountain, partially obscured by green leaves is a neon yellow sun. The sun is painted so bright it looks like it is glowing in contrast with the green leaves and blue sky. Along the top of the painting are rainbow sequin patches, drawing the eye toward the summit of the mountain. White tassels hang along on the bottom of the painting.
This is Dedicated to the One I Love (Collection of Living and Deceased Glaciers):
Volcán Sotora 1948
Volcán Las Galeras 1948
Purace 1949
Volcán Chiles 1950
Paramillo de Santa Rosa 1960
El Paramillo del Cisne 1960
Volcán Pico Pan de Azucar, Sierra Nevada del Cocuy 1960
El Nevado Paramillo del Quindio 1960
Volcán el Cumbal 1985
El Cerro de la Plaza, El Cocuy o Gücan 2026
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Pico Bolívar y Cristóbal Colón
Volcán Nevado del Tolima
Volcán El Nevado del Ruiz, Cumanday, Tama El Nevado del Huila
Sierra Nevada de El Cocuy o Gucan El Nevado de Santa Isabel
All 2023
Watercolors on paper
This watercolor series commemorates Colombia’s glaciers, both those lost and those still existing yet gravely threatened. Hung in chronological order by date of disappearance, Castano’s works draw inspiration from cartographer and illustrator Manuel María Paz’s 19th-century watercolor catalogue of Colombia’s regions. While Castaño’s series evokes the pride of María Paz’s national project, it also marks the ecological impact of the colonial era in which he worked. The newest in Castaño’s series is Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Cerro de la Plaza. That glacier, which covered 5 square kilometers in the 1800s, was declared extinct as of March this year.
Verbal Description
This gallery room is filled with the series of paintings titled This is Dedicated to the One I Love (Collection of Living and Deceased Glaciers). Each painting is 16 inches in height and 12 inches in width. In total, there are 24 paintings in the space, each painting is framed with a white wooden frame, and hangs in the center of the wall. On the left wall, there are four paintings; on the center wall there are eight paintings; and on the right wall, there are four paintings. Each painting is made using watercolor and depicts the tropical glaciers of Colombia that have lost their ice caps due to ongoing climate change.
Castaño’s watercolors give a misty and transparent effect on the subjects in the painting. The cloudy landscapes that surround the glaciers appear fluid — their thin layers building to reveal delicate terrains. In one of the paintings titled Purace, 1949, the bright green of the foreground blends into the white peak of the glacier Castaño is depicting. At the top of the painting, the sky turns shades of blue and gray. However, in other paintings in the series such as Volcan Nevado del Tolima, there is no green foreground. In this painting, the glacier is brown and the white of the ice is scarce. Throughout the series, Castaño depicts climate change as the glacial illustrations fluctuate in their landscape. Some paintings depict glaciers covered in white snow and ice, while other paintings portray rocky or floral landscapes.
Mother Mountain, 2026
Plaster sculpture with video mapped projection
2:16 mins
Colombia’s Quimbaya people conceive of Andean volcanic glaciers as elders and spiritual guardians. Created in collaboration with the artist’s two sons, Toussaint and JeanMichel, and her 91-year old mother, Luz Maria, this video embeds familial legacy and care in the landscape of Castaño’s maternal ancestors. Images collaged over the figures picture Volcán Santa Isabel’s ice recession, the unique Andean high altitude páramo landscape, and Colombia’s dense forests, while in voiceover, Castaño’s mother recites the names of thirteen Colombian glaciers, as she was taught to do as a child growing up in the town of Santa Rosa de Cabal, near Volcán Nevado Santa Isabel.
Verbal Description
In the second side gallery, Castaño showcases a plaster sculpture with a video projected on top. The walls of the room are painted black and curtains hang at the entrance to the space to block light from the other galleries. As a result, the darkness draws your eye to the illuminated sculpture and projection. The sculpture itself is shaped like a mountain with crags and ridges and sits on a pedestal. The top of the sculpture is flat, resembling one of the shield volcanos Castaño depicts in other works. The sculpture is lit up with the projection; covering the work in images and videos from Colombia’s forests and páramo landscapes.
JEAN-MICHEL DAUPHIN
Blue Mountain
Purple Mountain
Gray Mountain Reflection
All 2026
Watercolor and acrylic on paper
TOUSSAINT DAUPHIN
Water, 2026
Pencil on paper
Castaño’s sons, Jean-Michel and Toussaint, made these works in her studio. She says, “As an artist and a mother, I am always making but also caring for someone. I want my children to grow up in the studio, watching me work and making their own artwork. They are influenced by my actions, both good and bad. I hope to transmit to them an interest in looking and making, but also in caring for nature.”
Verbal Description
These paintings were created in collaboration with Castaño’s sons, Jean-Michel and Toussaint Dauphin. The two larger of the four paintings are about 12 inches in width by 6 inches in height and are titled Gray Mountain Reflection and Blue Mountain. Gray Mountain Reflection depicts a gray mountain overlooking a body of water. The paint appears thicker and more opaque than in Castaño’s other works. In the deep blue sky above the mountains, there are six fluffy clouds. The lake at the base of the mountain is covered in a dark shadow from the mountain. In Blue Mountain, the painting portrays a rounded, sky blue mountain summit. Various landscapes layer atop each other in the foreground of the painting. At the base, the land is light green, but quickly blends into shades of brown. The smaller two works are titled Purple Mountain and Water. These postcard sized paintings hang in a white wooden frame. Purple Mountain has a light teal sky with a contrasting purple mountain. The mountain has light brown, almost yellow highlights. Long, delicate strokes slope down the mountain in regal shades of violet, lavender, and plum. The final painting in the series is titled Water, and depicts a wave gently arriving at a sandy shore from above. The white foam dividing the blue water from the sand mimics the snowcaps separating the mountain and sky in other Castaño works. The shape of the crashing wave also resembles an abstracted mountain range.
Topographical Map Los Nevados Páramos Ecosystem
A Páramo Bestiary:
Pristimantis Paisa / Rain Frog Tarantula
Gigante de Patas Rojas / Giant Red-Leg Spider
Pristimantis Calcuratas / Small Calcar Rain Frog
Pecaríde Collar / Collared Peccary
Rana Arboricola Colombiana de Boettger / Botteger’s Colombian Tree Frog
Paca Andina / Mountain Paca
Tigrillo / Ocelot
Toucan de Montaña / Grey-Breasted Mountain Toucan
Frutero Barreteado / Barred Fruiteater
Oso Anteojos / Speckled Bear
Chivito Colibri / Buffy Helmetcrest
Condor de Los Andes / Andean Condor
Danta de Páaramo / Mountain Tapir
Conejo de los Andes / Andean Cottontail
All 2026
Watercolor gouache on watercolor paper
Here, Castaño depicts animals and topographies of the rare and unique Andean páramos, ecozones found between 9,500 and 13,000 feet above sea level. Nearly half of the world’s páramos are in Colombia. With sponge-like characteristics, páramos are natural reservoirs cyclically regulating, storing, and releasing water accumulated from fog, drizzle, and glacial runoff. Glacial melting and declining precipitation are drying out these delicate wetlands, endangering f lora and fauna and threatening human water supplies. Of the estimated 5,000 animal and plant species that live in páramos, 3,000 live nowhere else on Earth. Harkening back to earlier studies of Colombia’s ecology, Castaño’s elevation watercolor adopts the style of early 19th century botanist Alexander von Humboldt’s mountain elevation images.
Verbal Description
This series of fifteen watercolor paintings sits in the third gallery across from the window. The natural light in the space brightens each painting, all of which depict animals affected by climate change living in the tropical alpine tundra called the páramos. The paintings are arranged as a gallery-style collection on the wall. One of the paintings depicts an ocelot looking directly at the viewer with orange eyes. In another painting, a gray-breasted mountain toucan has a blue body and a red beak. The toucan sits atop a lightly leafed branch against a white background. Many of the portraits in this series are birds. For example, a condor of the Andes with a pink, wrinkled head, a Barred Fruiteater with green wings and a yellow and black striped tummy, and a Chivito Colibri with a fluffy, yellow body and long, wispy dark talons. In two paintings, Castaño portrays frogs: the Pristimantis Paisa, a small brown frog endemic to Colombia which Castaño warmly paints with big, soft eyes, and the Bottegers Colombian Tree Frog which camouflages on a green painted leaf. The frogs’ small, compact bodies are oriented to the left. In a landscape style painting, Castaño illustrates a speckled bear native to the Andes Mountains. The bear is painted with long grey strokes and has brown freckles of watercolor on its face. The bear’s sweet, brown eyes look off into the distance. Also included in the series are three small mammals: paca andina, collared peccary, and danta de paramo, all of which Castaño tenderly portrays with soft lines and colors.
This work depicts two mountains with a slight valley in between. The peak on the left is smaller, whereas the one on the right extends higher. The mountains are painted in opaque gouache, divided into seven layers separated by colors. The changing colors indicate different ecosystems existing at varying elevations. The higher mountain contains two extra layers of color. The layer at the base of the mountain is bright red and labeled ‘Tropical Forest’. Above, the ‘Sub Andean Forest’ is maroon, then ‘Andean Forest’ is labeled between 2500 and 3000 meters in deep green. The valley between the two mountains ends here. The remaining four layers are orange (representing ‘Sub-Páramos’), brown (representing ‘Páramo’), yellow (‘Super Páramo’), and finally gray (‘Perpetual Snows’). The work is essentially a map of the different ecosystems that live at different altitudes in the Andean mountain range. While the map of the ecosystems are made with gouache, the sky surrounding the mountain is painted in a light-blue, misty watercolor. The work is displayed in a clear plastic frame.