Catalina Chervin and José Antonio Suárez Londoño
1 October – 28 November 2026
Patrick Heide Contemporary Art is delighted to present a two-artist exhibition featuring Catalina Chervin (b.1953, Argentina) and José Antonio Suárez Londoño (b.1955, Colombia) at our Brussels showroom.
Alongside our London exhibition Peso Muerto with Colombian artist Bernardo Ortiz, we extend our spotlight on Latin American artists in Brussels with two more positions highlighting the artistic weight of the continent, in particular also for works on paper.
The practices of Chervin and Londoño approach drawing as a form of thinking: a continuous process, through which images, figures and relationships emerge intuitively over time. The exhibition brings together various approaches, exploring repetition as meditation, drawing as memory and the page as a space where multiple forms of life can coexist.
Catalina Chervin (b. 1953, Argentina) creates drawings that occupy an ambiguous territory between figuration and abstraction. Organic forms and bodies appear to merge, proliferate and transform, resisting fixed identification while suggesting an interconnected natural world. Chervin’s drawings are populated by masses of tiny human figures. From afar, these groupings can appear almost abstract, while closer looking reveals the individuality and subtle differences within each element. Chervin allows repetition to become a process of discovery: recurring motifs are never quite identical, and subtle variations gradually generate new meanings. Her intuitive approach gives the drawings an almost biological quality, as forms seem to emerge through association and instinct rather than predetermined composition.
José Antonio Suárez Londoño (b. 1955, Colombia) approaches drawing as a continuous practice of observation, accumulation and invention. His extensive daily production and Anuarios (yearbooks) transform drawing into both an archive and a record of passing time. Londoño develops a distinct visual vocabulary from the everyday: objects he encounters throughout the day, details from his surroundings, and fragments from books he has been reading, all find their way into his drawings. Rather than constructing linear narratives, Suárez Londoño allows images to coexist through association, creating networks of relationships that extend beyond the individual page. His intimate drawings invite the viewer to move between the observed and the imagined, suggesting a much larger visual universe in which each work operates simultaneously as an individual fragment and part of an ongoing system.
For both artists, drawing is a meditative activity allowing differences to emerge within repetition. Chervin’s small figures and Londoño’s intimate drawings paradoxically generate a sense of expansiveness: the fragment becomes a microcosm, while minute marks can suggest entire landscapes or imagined worlds. Chervin and Suárez Londoño share an understanding of drawing as a practice of attention. Their works share a sustained commitment to drawing, rewarding sustained looking and allowing meaning to emerge gradually.
Catalina Chervin was recently among the recipients of Argentina’s National Award for Artistic Career Achievement, recognising artists who have made a significant contribution to the country’s art. Three drawings from her series While Weaving My “Me” Skin have recently entered the permanent collection of the British Museum in London. Her work is held in major collections internationally, including the Albertina in Vienna, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.
José Antonio Suárez Londoño has exhibited internationally, including at the 55th Venice Biennale, curated by Massimiliano Gioni, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was also the subject of The Yearbooks at The Drawing Center in New York. His work is held in major international collections, including those of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Albertina in Vienna, and the Courtauld Institute in London. He lives and works in Medellín, where his daily drawing practice has remained closely connected to the city’s artistic community.