BEATRIZ GONZÁLEZ IN LONDON: A MONUMENTAL RETROSPECTIVE FOLLOWING HER PASSING
The acclaimed Colombian artist will be honoured at the Barbican Centre with an exhibition bringing together more than 150 works spanning seven decades of production.
The Barbican opens on 25 February a major retrospective of pioneering Colombian artist, curator, art historian and educator Beatriz González (1932–2026). Marking her first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom and the most extensive presentation of her work ever held in Europe, the show celebrates a practice that unfolded over more than six decades.
Through paintings, sculptural assemblages and monumental public installations, González persistently explored how images permeate the world, radically reimagining what art can reveal about power, grief and memory. Known as la maestra in Colombia, her singular vision influenced generations of artists and thinkers. Her powerful body of work engages with experiences of conflict, communion and everything in between. Situated within Colombia’s specific historical context and its broader Latin American framework, the retrospective underscores the profound global resonance of her work.
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Beatriz González. Señor presidente, qué honor estar con usted en este momento histórico (Mr President, What an Honor To Be with You at This Historic Moment), 1987. Casas Riegner, Bogotá. © Beatriz González. Courtesy the artist
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Beatriz González. Los papagayos (The Parrots), 1987. Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift of Jorge M. Pérez © Beatriz González. Courtesy Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo: Oriol Tarridas
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Beatriz González. La pesca milagrosa (Miraculous Catch), 1992. Museo de Arte Moderno de Barranquilla, MAMB, Colombia. © Beatriz González. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Julio Cesar Florez
Featuring more than 150 artworks—many of which have never been shown in the UK—the exhibition demonstrates how González resisted fixed categorisation through her experimentation across multiple media. The presentation includes paintings, prints, sculptural objects and interventions on furniture—beds, tables, trays, televisions and jewellery boxes—as well as monumental printed curtains, painted backdrops and immersive wallpaper installations.
González worked from found images she collected throughout her life in Colombia, ranging from worn reproductions of Western art historical masterpieces to newspaper clippings documenting violent conflict and loss. She reinterpreted and transformed these sources through a distinctive graphic language and a bold colour palette. Across her practice, with satire, tenderness and defiance, she confronted Colombia’s recurring violence, socially constructed notions of taste and value, the legacies of colonialism and the displacement of communities.
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Beatriz González. Nací en Florencia y tenía veintiseis años cuando fue pintado mi retrato (esta frase pronunciada en voz dulce y baja), (I Was Born in Florence and I Was Twenty-Six Years
Old When My Portrait Was Painted (Sentence Uttered in a Low, Soft Voice)), 1974. Collection Beatriz González. © Beatriz González. Courtesy the artist
Photo: Laura Jiménez -
Beatriz González. Telón de la móvil y cambiante naturaleza (Backdrop of a Moving and Changing Nature), 1978. Collection Beatriz González © Beatriz González. Photo: © Frédéric Deval
– Mairie de Bordeaux – CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux
The exhibition is a highlight of the Barbican’s spring season, an ideas-led programme that brings together the Centre’s disciplines to explore urgent questions concerning our world, our societies and ourselves.
Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, stated: “We are delighted to present the first solo exhibition of Beatriz González in the UK, whose groundbreaking work and practice have influenced generations of artists and thinkers around the world. Her prolific production addresses experiences of conflict and communion, grief and memory, and the power that everyday images can hold—themes that continue to resonate with global audiences today. As a highlight of our Spring season, this exhibition reaffirms our commitment to platforming practices that are bold and urgently relevant.”
The exhibition will be on view from 25 February to 10 May 2026 at Barbican Art Gallery, Silk Street, London, United Kingdom.
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