Puerto Rican Artist Gisela Colón's Landmark Homecoming

From the luminous, 30-foot-long Eternity Now (2021) elliptical dome at the inaugural “Forever Is Now” exhibition at the Pyramids of Giza to the towering Plasmático (2024) installation along the Monumental Axis of Brasília, Los Angeles–based fine artist Gisela Colón’s beguiling works have found critical recognition the world over. Colón’s latest exhibition, “La Montaña, El Monolito,” which opened March 14 at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), marks a metaphoric return home. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, the artist introduced a shimmering site-specific sculpture into the Puerto Rican tropical rainforest last year, as part of ArteYunque. This new exhibition, however, represents a sprawling retrospective that covers more than 30 years of art and the context around its development.

“As an institution entrusted with studying and disseminating contemporary cultural heritage, it is our responsibility to insist on bringing the work of our artists in the diaspora closer to home,” Marianne Ramírez Aponte, MAC’s Executive Director and Chief Curator, shares. “For this reason, we feel deeply proud to receive Gisela’s work at the museum and to share her contributions to the art world locally, as this is her first monographic exhibition in Puerto Rico.”

Throughout her career, Colón has initiated substantive cultural discourse through her monolithic sculptures and paintings—from their materiality (whether it’s been oil on canvas, blow-molded acrylic, sustainable carbon fiber, or resin) to their “organic minimalism” (a term she herself coined). Within each, she’s grappled with both the early and the cosmic, coupled with memory and imagination. All of this is on display in “La Montaña, El Monolito.”

Altogether, Colón’s practice can be viewed through its progression. “The curatorial work accompanying Gisela’s presentation in the galleries aims to facilitate dialogue around her oeuvre from a standpoint that celebrates her trajectory—both in terms of its scope and its experimental engagement with materiality and the discursive sophistication of her work,” explains MAC curator Abdiel D. Segarra Ríos.

“La Montaña, El Monolito” will be on view through July 12. For Colón, it’s very much a professional highlight. “It is a dream come true to exhibit in my Puerto Rico and for my people to be able to see a lifetime of work in one place,” she says. “One can exhibit in any museum in the world, but nothing compares to exhibiting on my land—and especially at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico.”