Since 1995, Juan Manuel Echavarría’s photographs and videos have addressed the consequences of the endless Colombian drug wars. Traveling since 2010 through the rural and extensive region of Montes de María, ravaged by the war between the guerrilla movements, the paramilitaries, and the Colombian armed forces. Echavarría documented abandoned schools fallen to ruin and traces left by forced displacements – classrooms without children, desks or teachers, and roofless spaces invaded by tropical humidity where familiar mathematical signs, grammatical symbols, and faint alphabets, can still be seen. He focused his attention on the blackboard of former classrooms.

Born in Medellín, Colombia in 1947, Juan Manuel Echavarría lives and works in New York and Bogotá. Selected exhibitions include: National University of Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia (2025); Museo Universitario de la Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia (2023); Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom (2020); North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND (2019); Centro Cultural Salmona, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia (2018); Museo de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia (2015); Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (2015); Musée d’Aquitaine, Bordeaux, France (2015); Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France; traveled to Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France; Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum, Germany (2014); Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); 18th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2012); Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia (2012); Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico (2012); Phoenix Art Museum, AZ (2012); Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2011); Media Art Sammlung Goetz, ZKM, Museum of Contemporary Art, Karlsruhe, Germany (2010); Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (2006); Venice Biennale, Italy (2005). His work is included in prominent public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Tate Modern, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Goetz Collection, Munich; Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros; Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zurich; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia; and North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks. In 2017–2018, an expansive 20-year career survey exhibition was on view at MAMBO, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia. A 200-page monograph was published by Toluca Editions on this occasion. His most recent publication, Silencios (La Fábrica, 2025), is a 176- page photographic monograph dedicated to his ongoing series of the same name, first exhibited at Josée Bienvenu Gallery in New York in 2014.