Exhibit: Jorge Melquiades, “Traveling in the Mind,” March 30–April 15, 2026, reception, Saturday, April 4, 7pm to 10pm
Please join us at Counterpath (7935 East 14th Ave. in Denver) for an exhibition of the work of Jorge Melquiades. The show will be up from March 30, 2026, to April 15, 2026, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 4, 2026, from 7pm to 10pm.
This exhibition brings together a collection of works spanning multiple mediums and periods of Jorge’s artistic journey. It includes oil and charcoal pieces focused on mountainous and lunar landscapes, as well as more experimental works created during his time in Kenya. The show explores themes of solitude, migration, identity, and the search for inner stillness in a restless world.
Jorge Melquiades is a multidisciplinary artist based in Denver, Colorado, whose work moves between oil, charcoal, acrylic, watercolor, and colored pencil. Originally from Bolivia, his artistic voice has been shaped by migration, traveling, and long periods of reflection across different parts of the world.
His practice is rooted in contrast: structure and chaos, stillness and movement, darkness and illumination. Mountains, moons, and night skies appear frequently in his work, not as landscapes alone but as emotional terrains. Sunflowers, mushrooms, rivers, and lakes emerge as symbols of resilience, quiet transformation, and cyclical life.
His human figures lean toward abstraction and cubist influence, often appearing fragmented or impressionistic, reflecting identity as something shifting rather than fixed.
A part of his work was created during an unexpected six-month period in Mombasa, Kenya during the Covid-19 pandemic. There, working with limited materials like watercolor and colored pencil, he developed a more intimate and improvisational style. That period remains central to his artistic story, marking a moment of isolation, adaptation, and deep creative introspection.
Jorge’s work does not seek perfection. It seeks honesty, presence, and the raw texture of lived experience.
Artist statement / description of the work
This body of work is about being in between places. Between countries, between identities, between versions of myself. The mountains and moons come from a need for something constant while living my adult life in Colorado. They are stable, distant, and indifferent to human chaos. I return to them often. The night sky appears because it holds both darkness and possibility at the same time. Sunflowers and mushrooms began appearing as I dealt with grief. Over time, they became symbols of resilience and quiet growth. They exist without asking for attention, but they persist. The human figures are less defined. They are fragmented, sometimes distorted, sometimes unfinished. This reflects how I experience people and myself, not as fixed forms but as impressions that change depending on where we stand. The work created in Mombasa is different. I had fewer materials, less control, and more time. Those pieces feel more immediate and more vulnerable. They are not trying to be complete. They are trying to be honest. Yoga also finds its way into the work, not as poses but as a search for alignment, tension, and release. Overall, this exhibition is not about resolution. It is about presence, and learning to sit with what is unfinished.