La Chola Poblete is Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year” for 2023. As a visual artist, performer, and LGBTQ and trans rights activist, she explores the repercussions of the Inquisition, colonization, and global capitalism in her multimedia creations. Through her work, she endeavors to uncover novel avenues for community, remembrance, and defiance. Born in 1989 in Guaymallén, a community nestled in northwestern Argentina beneath the Andes, La Chola Poblete‘s roots play an important role in her artistic expression.
Her eponymous exhibition pays homage to her origins, reflecting of her youth as a non-binary, Indigenous adolescent. Simultaneously, La Chola harnesses her personal narrative to engage with the brutal erasure and stereotyping of indigenous peoples and cultures perpetrated by colonial powers, dominant power structures, and Christian religions. Woven into this narrative is her affiliation with the queer collective Comparsa Drag, underscoring the historical roles of women, transvestites, and transsexuals—forms of femininity historically persecuted, marginalized, and subjected to violence within religious and patriarchal hierarchies.
Guaymallén is akin to a visual stream of consciousness, a tapestry of beauty, cruelty, and rebellion. For her solo exhibition in Germany, La Chola Poblete conjures a “church of drawing,” an intimate sanctuary where religious, political, erotic, pop-cultural, and indigenous motifs intermingle to form an enveloping narrative. The collection features expansive watercolor series, novel photographic pieces, and an impactful installation, all of which take center stage.
Navigating through a glowing red room, one encounters a graffiti-covered wall bearing the inscription “Guaymallén,” alongside dancing figures, enigmatic visages, and a banner adorned with band names and sociopolitical messages. Concluding the exhibition are two cabinets, reminiscent of chapels and employed here for contemplation. In this space, the narrative continues—of virgins, martyrs, and divine influence—yet from a perspective of self-empowerment, healing, and subversive reclamation. Concurrently, La Chola Poblete confronts the link between art institutions and prevailing power structures, drawing parallels between the role of contemporary museums and their historical ecclesiastical counterparts. Her art, characterized by its unflinching nature and acerbic wit, disrupts the complacency with which we still adhere to narratives perpetuating white, patriarchal supremacy.
About the artist
In Argentina, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires dedicated a comprehensive solo exhibition entitled Ejercicios del llanto (Exercises in Weeping) to La Chola Poblete in 2022. It was curated by Victoria Noorthoorn, the director of the museum, who with Hou Hanru and Udo Kittelmann is part of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, which proposed La Chola Poblete as “Artist of the Year” 2023.
Guaymallén is La Chola Poblete’s second institutional solo exhibition in Europe and features a variety of new works. She has had solo and group exhibitions in Latin America and Europe, most recently at Kunsthalle Lisbon (2023), Centro Internacional Das Artes Jose de Guimaraes (2022), 34 Argentine Artists, Museo Moderno de Buenos Aires (2021), and MAC, Córdoba (2019).
All artworks unless otherwise labelled: La Chola Poblete, Untitled, 2023
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La Chola Poblete
La Chola Poblete is Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year” for 2023. As a visual artist, performer, and LGBTQ and trans rights activist, she explores the repercussions of the Inquisition, colonization, and global capitalism in her multimedia creations. Through her work, she endeavors to uncover novel avenues for community, remembrance, and defiance. Born in 1989 in Guaymallén, a community nestled in northwestern Argentina beneath the Andes, La Chola Poblete‘s roots play an important role in her artistic expression.
Her eponymous exhibition pays homage to her origins, reflecting of her youth as a non-binary, Indigenous adolescent. Simultaneously, La Chola harnesses her personal narrative to engage with the brutal erasure and stereotyping of indigenous peoples and cultures perpetrated by colonial powers, dominant power structures, and Christian religions. Woven into this narrative is her affiliation with the queer collective Comparsa Drag, underscoring the historical roles of women, transvestites, and transsexuals—forms of femininity historically persecuted, marginalized, and subjected to violence within religious and patriarchal hierarchies.
Guaymallén is akin to a visual stream of consciousness, a tapestry of beauty, cruelty, and rebellion. For her solo exhibition in Germany, La Chola Poblete conjures a “church of drawing,” an intimate sanctuary where religious, political, erotic, pop-cultural, and indigenous motifs intermingle to form an enveloping narrative. The collection features expansive watercolor series, novel photographic pieces, and an impactful installation, all of which take center stage.
Navigating through a glowing red room, one encounters a graffiti-covered wall bearing the inscription “Guaymallén,” alongside dancing figures, enigmatic visages, and a banner adorned with band names and sociopolitical messages. Concluding the exhibition are two cabinets, reminiscent of chapels and employed here for contemplation. In this space, the narrative continues—of virgins, martyrs, and divine influence—yet from a perspective of self-empowerment, healing, and subversive reclamation. Concurrently, La Chola Poblete confronts the link between art institutions and prevailing power structures, drawing parallels between the role of contemporary museums and their historical ecclesiastical counterparts. Her art, characterized by its unflinching nature and acerbic wit, disrupts the complacency with which we still adhere to narratives perpetuating white, patriarchal supremacy.
About the artist
In Argentina, the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires dedicated a comprehensive solo exhibition entitled Ejercicios del llanto (Exercises in Weeping) to La Chola Poblete in 2022. It was curated by Victoria Noorthoorn, the director of the museum, who with Hou Hanru and Udo Kittelmann is part of the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, which proposed La Chola Poblete as “Artist of the Year” 2023.
Guaymallén is La Chola Poblete’s second institutional solo exhibition in Europe and features a variety of new works. She has had solo and group exhibitions in Latin America and Europe, most recently at Kunsthalle Lisbon (2023), Centro Internacional Das Artes Jose de Guimaraes (2022), 34 Argentine Artists, Museo Moderno de Buenos Aires (2021), and MAC, Córdoba (2019).
All artworks unless otherwise labelled:
La Chola Poblete, Untitled, 2023
Further artworks from this exhibition
Pop Icon, Holy Virgin, Pachamama: La Chola’s Vírgenes Watercolors
Hard rock, Rolinga, Ballroom: La Chola Poblete’s Banner Installation
Materiality, Metaphors, and Opposites
Myths and Madonnas: Staged Photographs
Playing with Cultural Expectations: La Chola Poblete and the Nazca Lines
Venus papas lays, 2023
Venus Cacharos, 2023
The Striped Column: A Tribute to Freddi Mamani Silvestre’s Neo-Andean Architectural Style