FELIPE MACIA
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FELIPE MACIA
Felipe Macía is a Colombian artist whose work explores the intersections of art, ecology, and community. He holds an MFA in Film, Video, New Media, and Animation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2023). Working across sound, video installation, light, and large-scale public interventions, Macía investigates how atmosphere and climate inscribe memory in matter and space. His projects have been presented in Colombia, Los Angeles, and in Chicago through Art on theMART (2023). His solo exhibition Practices of Place (2025, Watershed Art and Ecology, Chicago) marked his U.S. debut. His award-winning documentary Verde como el Oro mobilized public resistance to mega-mining in Colombia, earning the Pulitzer Rainforest Journalism Fund Prize. Deeply engaged in collective practice, he co-developed Colegio El Cultivo La Leona in Cajamarca, a public school project nominated for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (2024) and awarded second place at the Colombian Architecture Biennale.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice engages art, ecology, and community to explore how planetary systems shape landscapes and human experience. Working with sound, light, video, and public space, I examine atmosphere and climate as living archives that inscribe memory in matter and space. Central to my approach is how environmental processes become embodied and made perceptible through artistic representation. I draw from scientific enquiry, ecological knowledge, and collective practice, treating the environment not as backdrop but as an active presence—alive with the poetics of living forces. I believe in an art practice that also treats social relationships as a material; through community work, I seek to reshape social and ecological relations, recognizing the agency of all beings and opening dialogues across difference. My work cultivates protocols of listening and somatic thinking, weaving rigorous research with lyrical intuition.
EDUCATION
Masters in Fine Arts; Film, Video, New Media and Animation, School of the Arts Institute of Chicago; Chicago, United States 2023
Bachelors in Business and Sustainability, University of Queensland; Brisbane, Australia, June 2013
SOLO EXHIBITION
2025 Practices of Place, Watershed Art and Ecology, Chicago, Unites States
LARGE SCALE PUBLIC SPACE INTERVENTIONS
2023 Site Specific Installation - Architectural Kinetics, Analog - Winter Program, Art on the Mart, Chicago,
2023 Site Specific Installation - Public Space, Doane Observatory, School of the Art institute,
LARGE SCALE PUBLIC SPACE INTERVENTIONS
2023 Site Specific Installation - Architectural Kinetics, Analog - Winter Program, Art on the Mart, Chicago,
2023 Site Specific Installation - Public Space, Doane Observatory, School of the Art institute,
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Arqueologia del cielo, Voltaje Salon de arte y tecnologia, Bogota, Colombia
2023 Archeology of Sky #4, Sense - realtime, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, 2023
Archeology of Sky #1, Atmosphere, Forecast Foundation, Los Angeles, 2023
Boundries, Fusions Open Studio Night, School of the Art institute, Chicago, 2023
Archeology of Sky #2, Listening to the Sky, Arts Letter and Numbers and Truant School, Albany, NY, 2023
Atmosphere of Rivers, Grad Show, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, 2023
2022 Grid, Unstable Space, No Nation, Chicago 2022
2021 Verde como el Oro , Museum of Contemporary Art Medellin MAM, Medellin, Colombia, 2021
2020 No Cumbia Without Forest, Montes de Maria el Caribe que no es Costa es Bosque, Flora Arts Natura - USAID -, Cartagena, Colombia, 2020
2019 No Cumbia Without Forest, Montes de Maria el Caribe que no es Costa es Bosque, Flora Arts Natura - USAID - , Bogota, Colombia, 2019
2018La Danza del Agricultor, Dulce Tumaco, Flora Arts Natura - Cacao Hunters - Crepes & Waffles, Bogota, 2018
2017Arracacha Sonora, Oro Vital Cajamarca, Museum of Contemporary Art Bogota (MAMBO), Bogota, 2017
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024 Residencia Cuerpo Enjambre Amazona de Mundo Común, Leticia, Bogota, Colombia
2024 Colegio El Cultivo La Leona, Nominated Projects Mie Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) , Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, United States
2024 Honor Mention Colegio Cultivo la Leona, La Bienal Colombiana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Bogota, Colombia
2024, Residency Earth and Sky, Forecast Foundation, Los Angeles
2023 Residency Listening to the Sky, Arts Letter and Numbers and Truant School, Albany, NY, 2023
2021 Greener Than Gold Documentary, Winner Pulitzer Rainforest Journalism Fund
2021 Werner Herzog Herzog Film Accelerator: Filming a strange planet; Lanzarote, La Selva Coop, Spain
TEACHING
2023 Teacher Assistant of Jan Tichy for Public Light and Space, School of the Art Institute Chicago, July 2023 - December 2023
2023 Teacher Assistant of Marlena Novak for 3D Next Nature Class, School of the Art Institute Chicago, August 2022 - December 2022
ART PUBLICATIONS AND BIBLIGRAPHY
2024 Beyond the impact report: What’s Really needed to Produce and Sustain Social Impact in Documentary Film? Filmmakers and Producers “Get Real” about the last decade of social impact work, Documentary Power Research Institute at the Center for Media & Social Impact, School of Communication, American University, Washington,
2023 Verde como el oro Case Study, Mediteca de Cine e Impacto Latinoamericana
2023 Archeology of Sky, “Atmosphere” issue 11, Forecast Foundation, Los Angeles, U.S Case Study Verde como el Oro, Mediateca De Cine E impacto Social, Brasil - Mexico - Colombia
SELECTED PRESS ARTICLES
2025 Felipe Macia: Practices of Place, The Visualist, Chcago
2025 Felipe Macia: el artista colombiano que convierte el Amazonas en partitura y debuta en Estados Unidos, Revista Diners, Colombia
2025 El artista colombiano Felipe Macia debuta en EE.UU. con su exposición sobre medioambiente, HJCK, Bogota
2025 Felipe Macia, el colombiano que debuta en Estados Unidos con una exposición que transforma el clima en arte, EL TIEMPO, Bogota Colombia
2022 Verde como el Oro, by Zoe Freilich, Fotodemic Org, New York
2021 ‘Verde como el oro’: el retrato de los temores por un proyecto minero en Colombia, France 24
2021 ,‘Green as Gold’, the Documentary Chronicling Tensions Over a Colombian Mining Project, Pulitzer Center
2021, Mining Company Threatens the Life of the Andean Bear in Colombia, Vice
2020 Arte y crisis climàtica: cuatro artista que exploran esta relación en Colombia, Ana Mustafa, Revista Arcadia
2020 Sobre la exposición “Montes de María: el Caribe que no es costa, es bosque”, El Espectador, Colombia
2020 Montes de María: la iniciativa que busca proteger el bosque seco tropical en el FICCI, Revista Z, Colombia
2019 Dulce Tumaco en Bogotá, Ana Luisa Gonzalez, Contemporary And America Latina C&AL Magazine
2019 Dulce Tumaco una reflexion sobre la industria cacaotera, Revista Semana, Colombia
2017 Cuando el verdadero oro es la arrancacha, El Tiempo, Colombia
2017 Oro Vital Cajamarca, Radionica, Colombia
2017 Oro vital, la exposición que resalta a Cajamarca, Caracol Radio, Colombia
2023 Teacher Assistant of Marlena Novak for 3D Next Nature Class, School of the Art Institute Chicago, August 2022 - December 2022
ART PUBLICATIONS AND BIBLIGRAPHY
2024 Beyond the impact report: What’s Really needed to Produce and Sustain Social Impact in Documentary Film? Filmmakers and Producers “Get Real” about the last decade of social impact work, Documentary Power Research Institute at the Center for Media & Social Impact, School of Communication, American University, Washington,
2023 Verde como el oro Case Study, Mediteca de Cine e Impacto Latinoamericana
2023 Archeology of Sky, “Atmosphere” issue 11, Forecast Foundation, Los Angeles, U.S Case Study Verde como el Oro, Mediateca De Cine E impacto Social, Brasil - Mexico - Colombia
SELECTED PRESS ARTICLES
2025 Felipe Macia: Practices of Place, The Visualist, Chcago
2025 Felipe Macia: el artista colombiano que convierte el Amazonas en partitura y debuta en Estados Unidos, Revista Diners, Colombia
2025 El artista colombiano Felipe Macia debuta en EE.UU. con su exposición sobre medioambiente, HJCK, Bogota
2025 Felipe Macia, el colombiano que debuta en Estados Unidos con una exposición que transforma el clima en arte, EL TIEMPO, Bogota Colombia
2022 Verde como el Oro, by Zoe Freilich, Fotodemic Org, New York
2021 ‘Verde como el oro’: el retrato de los temores por un proyecto minero en Colombia, France 24
2021 ,‘Green as Gold’, the Documentary Chronicling Tensions Over a Colombian Mining Project, Pulitzer Center
2021, Mining Company Threatens the Life of the Andean Bear in Colombia, Vice
2020 Arte y crisis climàtica: cuatro artista que exploran esta relación en Colombia, Ana Mustafa, Revista Arcadia
2020 Sobre la exposición “Montes de María: el Caribe que no es costa, es bosque”, El Espectador, Colombia
2020 Montes de María: la iniciativa que busca proteger el bosque seco tropical en el FICCI, Revista Z, Colombia
2019 Dulce Tumaco en Bogotá, Ana Luisa Gonzalez, Contemporary And America Latina C&AL Magazine
2019 Dulce Tumaco una reflexion sobre la industria cacaotera, Revista Semana, Colombia
2017 Cuando el verdadero oro es la arrancacha, El Tiempo, Colombia
2017 Oro Vital Cajamarca, Radionica, Colombia
2017 Oro vital, la exposición que resalta a Cajamarca, Caracol Radio, Colombia