My artistic practice explores the restoration of ancestral and relational bonds as a form of healing and resistance.
Rooted in pre-Columbian Indigenous knowledge fromColombia and informed by my experience as a Latinx woman living in Canada, my work examines how ancient worldviews can address contemporary issues. Through terracotta sculptures informed by pre-Columbian cosmologies, I reinterpret ancestral symbolism to produce figurative forms that engage with present-day realities. My practice integrates artistic creation and cultural research as a process of reconnection that seeks to restore what has been fragmented by colonial histories.
Drawing on post-colonial theory and traditional ceramic techniques I engage with histories disrupted by colonial erasure to critically examine contemporary crisis such as mental health and climate change, which are deeply interconnected through the systems and behaviors they shape. Through close analysis of ancestral symbolism, cosmologies, and ceramic materiality, my research integrates teachings centered on balance, care,
and interdependence within psychological and ecological systems. This research-based approach grounds my sculptural practice and informs how ancestral knowledge is translated into contemporary form.
My sculptures explore themes of renewal, duality, and resilience through recurring figures such as double-headed snakes, birds, reptiles, and jaguars. These forms
symbolize adaptability, regeneration, mental strength, and environmental interconnectedness. Through this work, I pursue a form of psychological decolonization that resists systems of separation and extraction, honors erased lineages, and affirms the interdependence between humans, non-human life, and the natural world.
Kimberly Orjuela is a visual artist born in Colombia and based in Montreal, Canada. She completed a residency at Guldagergaard – International Ceramics Research Center in Denmark in 2022 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University in 2023. She received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2024, 2025 and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec in 2025. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including a group exhibition at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art curated by the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in March 2025, and is currently on view in Ancestral Abiayala: Ceramics from Indigenous Latin America at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. Her upcoming exhibitions include Fondation Grantham in May 2026 and Centre d’artiste Caravansérail in June 2026. Orjuela’s work is held in several private collections, as well as in the Majudia Collection and the Gardiner Museum
SOLO EXHBITIONS + Upcoming
Canadian Small Favours (group)
NCECA 2026. Detroit, United States
Winter 2026
Un monde en commun (group)
Fondation Grantham. Saint-Edmont-de-Grantham, Qc
Spring 2026
What Kind of Ancestor you want to be?
Caravanserail. Rimouski, Québec
Summer 2026
Virginia McClure Ceramic Biennale (group)
McClure Gallery. Montréal, Québec
Fall 2026
The Jaguar and the Scarlet Bird (group) OBORO. Montréal, Québec
Fall 2026
Our Minds Create our Reality McClure Gallery. Montréal, Québec
Winter 2025
Spiritual Roots
Galerie Hugues Charbonneau. Montréal
Winter 2025
Eternal Tales
Maison de la Culture NDG. Montréal, Québec
Fall 2024