1963. Born in Cali, Colombia.
With a deep interest on disciplines as science, martial arts and Eastern cultures, Jaime Franco decided to start a career in engineering in Colombia to go to Paris later. There he left the practical study of science to pursue his more abstract and conceptual part. In the French capital he came in contact with the Academy of Fine Arts and began drawing on his own, visually devouring the City of Light not only through his drawings, but also through photography. In the streets of Paris, Franco set about taking pictures in black and white with an infinite curiosity for the games of movement, light and shadow; without neglecting his passion for painting, where scientific training and his interest in physics are evident. Jaime Franco's work has been classified as geometric expressionist, however, for him geometric resources (square, rectangle or circle) and the techniques used, oil, acrylic and encaustic are simply part of his language in an artistic wandering started in 1987.
"Franco has made a work that establishes a dialogue with expressionism and figurative art. In fact, in a moment of history where these movements are thought by some as outdated, here they resurface as important concepts in his work. The interesting thing is that Franco is not limited to any of these movements, and without ever neglecting painting, lives among them in a sort of limbo. This dynamic can be understood through that position that has gained strength in recent years and claims that contemporary painting ceases to be defined in terms of figurative art vs. abstraction or expressionism to move towards a "figural" act (1). An act in which, without renouncing to the sensible and concrete object, the image appears not as a narrative-type copy from a model. It is through this image that matter acquires importance, in this case color and line. There is a representation, but it becomes the channel from where you talk about the experience and the very possibility of painting.
However, it is the murals that are made with mud since more than five years ago that are summit of this process. On one hand, the nature of the material used suggests a life of its own(the natural density of the mud reveals certain parts of the structure or initial drawing), and, secondly, a concrete structure which by its very impossibility of realization becomes the perfect metaphor to talk about the history of painting itself. A medium that stands like mud in its ambiguous nature, first in the majesty of the material (used to lift cities and civilizations), and secondly as something destined to disappear, something that will ultimately be canceled.
Ximena Gama.
CV
EDUCATION
1981-83 Engineering, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá
1983-85 Science, Inst. Pierre e Marie Curie, Paris, Francia
1985-87 Ecole Superieure de Beaux Art, París, Francia
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1989 Galería Casa Negret, Bogotá.
1991 Galería Yoshii, Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
Galería Yoshii, Tokio, Japón.
Galería Yoshii, París. Francia
1992 Galería Yoshii, Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
1994 Galería Yoshii, Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
1995 Galería del MAM, Bogotá.
1996 Galería Jenny Vilà, Cali.
Crisol. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
1997 Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
1999 Nuevas Pinturas. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
2001 Obra Reciente. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
2002 Pintura Reciente. Sala de exposiciones Suramericana. Medellín.
2003 Pinturas y obras sobre papel. Galería El Museo, Bogotá
2004 Museo de Arte Moderno, La Tertulia. Cali
2005 Grandes Formatos. Galería El Museo. Bogotá.
2007 Construcciones Ilusorias. Galería El Museo. Bogotá.
Inferno. Galería Santa Fé. Planetario Distrital. Bogotá.
2009 Umbral. Centro Colombo Americano. Bogotá.
Débris (Lo que Queda), Galería El Museo. Bogotá.
¿Qué son aquellos grandes castillos que flotan sobre el mar? Galería El Nogal. Bogotá.
2010 Rastro. Museo de Artes Visuales. U Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Bogotá.
2011 Torres de Viento. Galería El Museo. Bogotá.
2012 Vestigio. Museo de los pintores de Oaxaca. Oaxaca, México.
Utopías. Toca Galería, México DF.
Centinela. Fondo de Cultura Económica. Centro cultural García Márquez. Bogotá.
2014 Aletheia, des-ocultamientos. Galería El Museo. Bogotá.
Giróscopo. Proyecto individual durante la feria ArtBO.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1988 I Bienal de Arte de Bogotá. Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá.
1989 Conceptos Abstractos. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
1990 Tres Artistas Colombianos. Fundación CELARC, Caracas, Venezuela.
1991 Geografías. Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo I.D.C.T., Planetario Distrital, Galería Santa Fé, Bogotá.
1993 Galería Yoshii, Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
1994 Galería Yoshii, Tokio. Japón.
1996 Salón de Arte Joven. Instituto Distrital de Cultura y Turismo I.D.C.T., Planetario Distrital, Galería Santa Fé, Bogotá.
1997 Panorámica de la Plástica Colombiana del Siglo XX. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
Vancouver International Art Exhibition - Art 1997. Galería El Museo, Vancouver Trade Canadá.
Visiones Contemporáneas del Arte Colombiano. Centro Lamm, México D.F., México.
1998 Rojo Sobre Rojo. Programa Johnnie Walker de apoyo a las Artes. Casa de La Moneda, Bogotá.
Pintura Colombiana de los Noventa. Ministerio de Cultura - Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo - BID, Cartagena.
1999 Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
Chicago International Art Exhibition – ARTChicago 1999. Galería El Museo, Chicago, Estados Unidos.
Arte en Centímetros. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
2000 Pintura...Pintura. Galería El Museo, Bogotá.
Chicago International Art Exhibition - ARTChicago 2000. Galería El Museo, Chicago.
2001 Toronto International Art Fair – TIAF 2001. Galería El Museo, Toronto, Canadá.
Colombia Visible/Invisible. Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid, España.
2002 San Francisco International Art Exposition – SFIAE 2002. Galería El Museo, San Francisco, Estados Unidos.
2003 Sin fronteras. Galería Fernando Pradilla, Madrid, España. Solidarte.
2004 Chicago International Art Exhibition – ARTChicago 2004. Galería El Museo, Chicago, Estados Unidos.
2005 Del taller al coleccionista. Museo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá.
Contradicciones y Convivencias. Arte de América Latina 1981 - 2000. Banco de la República. Bogotá.
2009 IV Salón de Arte Bidimensional. Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño.
2010 Grand Rapis Art Prize. Michigan, Estados Unidos.
2011 Referencias Expansivas. Fundación N-C Arte. Bogotá.
Odeón, Feria de arte contemporáneo. Bogotá.
2012 II Bienal de Arte. Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá.
2013 Feria Internacional de Arte de Bogotá, ArtBo. Bogotá.
2014 Textos Audibles, Visibles y Legibles. Galería Santa Fé. Bogotá.
COLLECTIONS
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo – BID
Museo Universidad Nacional, Bogotá.
Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá.
Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia. Cali.
Museo de Arte Moderno. Medellín.