Profiles: Angélica Perea | Proimágenes Colombia

María Angélica Perea Pérez is one of the most well-recognized art directors in Colombia and is responsible for the creative visions of films like The Wind Journeys (Los viajes del viento, 2009), Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente, 2015) and Birds of Passage (Pájaros de verano, 2018), all of which have participated in renowned festivals such as Cannes, San Sebastián, Toronto, and Cartagena de Indias, among others. In the 2015 Macando Awards and 2016 Platino Awards, she received an award for Best Art Director for her work in the first Colombian film nominated for an Oscar: Embrace of the Serpent (2015).
 
Perea was born in Bogotá on July 13, 1977. She is a professor of Plastic Arts at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and specialized in sculpture, history and art theory from the same university in 2000. She also studied photography at the Alliance Française in Colombia. The majority of her career in the film world has been spent as an art director, costume designer and production designer in several well-known national film projects.
 
In short films, she debuted as a costume designer with El dragón de Comodo (2005) by José Luis Rúgeles and continued as the art director of: Desayuno con el suicida by Jaime Escallón, Hoy es un día distinto (2007) by Pablo González, Mimo (2009) by Giovanna Hernández, Asunto by gallos (2009) by Joan Gómez, Las reglas by la empresa (2010) by Ivan Wild and Los caminos al infierno no son lo que parecen (2012) by Carlos Gaviria.
 
In feature films, she was the graphic designer for the film Perder el cuestión de método (2004) by Sergio Cabrera. She also served as art director for the films La historia del baúl rosado (2005) by Libia Stella Gómez, Cuarenta (2007) by Carlos Fernández by Soto, The Wind Journeys (Los viajes del viento, 2009) by Ciro Guerra, Recursos humanos (2010) by Jaime Escallón, La reina (2010) by Antonio Dorado, Todos se van (2013) by Sergio Cabrera, Violence (Violencia, 2014) by Jorge Forero, Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo del serpiente, 2014) by Ciro Guerra and Birds of Passage (Pájaros by verano, 2018) by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra. Perea was the costume designer for García (2009) by José Luis Rúgeles and was part of the art production design team in the feature films La Playa (2011) by Juan Andrés Arango, Ella (2013) by Libia Estella Gómez and Birds of Passage.
 
Perea began her education in different artistic fields. She took a black and white photography course at the Alliance Française in Colombia (1994-1995), she enrolled in curating seminars (Ministry of Culture, 1999), completed a seminar titled “Museum and Muse” at the Universidad Nacional Art Museum (1999) and “New Trends in Museum Education” at the National Museum (1999). In 2001, she participated in the National Congress of Cultural Managers (Universidad del Rosario) and the New Policies Updat for Foundations Conference (National Museum).
 

While Angélica Perea has extensive experience in audiovisual media in Colombia in the area of arts, her education has also allowed her to work as an academic, working independently and as a team member on research involving art history and cultural management. She taught and gave workshops on sculpture for children during the Creative School Break program (1998) at the Institutional District of Culture; she taught a seminar on curating with the Colombian Ministry of Culture (1999-2000); and was a guide and workshop facilitator at the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá (1999-2000). Between 2000 and 2001, she gave photography workshops for children with Cooperantes; taught Photography I at the Interior Design program at La Salle Collage; and taught Foundations of Photography for extension courses at the Universidad Nacional. In 2005, she gave a workshop on art direction for “Imagining Our Image” workshops, a program of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.
 
She was also participated in the research conducted for the Martha Rodríguez Contemporary Drawing Collection (Universidad Nacional Art Museum, 1999) and for the 50 Years of Drawing Exposition (Universidad Nacional Art Museum, 2000). In 2001, she joined the Abejas africanizadas research team in their investigation titled Humbolt el regreso  (“The Return of Humboldt, Goethe Institute-Jardín Botánico, 2001); and in 2005 she helped with the curatorial project led by Mercedes Angola and Raúl Cristancho, Viaje sin mapa: representaciones afro en el arte contemporáneo, nuevos hombres (“Journey Without a Map: Afro-Colombian Representations in Contemporary Art, New Men,” Bank of the Republic).
 
In 1997, she participated in the expositions Mi tiempo es corto, mi juicio escaso  (“My Time Is Short, My Judgement Scarce, Galería Arcamen-Espacio para el Arte). In 1997 and 1998 she participated in the expositions at Salón Cano (Universidad Nacional Art Museum) and took first place for her exposition in 1998. In 1999 she presented an exposition at the Universidad Nacional Art Museum and that same year and location, she participated in the First Salón Cano Awards. She also presented her previous work, Journey Without a Map: Afro-Colombian Representations in Contemporary Art, at Luis Ángel Arango Library in 2006.
 
Between 2004 and 2006, she worked in general production and in designing installations at Galería Al Cuadrado where she was involved in different areas in expositions and theaters including the following expositions: Desde adentro by María Elvira Escallón (at the old Teatro Olimpia, 2004); Campos Latinoamericanos by Miguel Ángel Rojas, Regina Silveira and Antiguo Milton, where she won the Pencil of Steel Award in the category for best Ephemeral Architecture (2005); the photography series Imagen+realidad  by Miguel Ángel Rojas, Juan Fernando Herrán, Oscar Muñoz, and María Elvira Escallón (the old Teatro Cuba, 2005); Una cosa es una cosa by María Teresa Hincapié (Santa Clara Church, 2005); Bombas by Jaime Ávila in Antiguo (el Cid Theater, 2006); and Campo Santo by Juan Fernando Herran (Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Cultural Center, 2006).
 
She was also the art director for Andrés Cepeda’s music video “Mientras más pasaba el tiempo” directed by Jader Rangel (2003), and for commercials for brand such as Pepsi, produced by Rhayuela Films (2003); Bellsouth by RCN production (2005); Publicar S.A by Avenida Films; Telecom (Christmas and end of year service reconnection, 2005) and Doritos Creamy, both by Rhayuela Films (2006). Directed by Jaime Osorio, she also coordinated the art for the Nestlé and Milo commercial campaigns.
 
In television, she created the set for Madre luna (RTI for Telemundo 2006) by Andrés Birman. She was the image consultant for the reality TV shows Factor X La batalla de las estrellas and Factor XS (2006). She directed the art department in different TV series and telenovelas  such as: Historias de hombres sólo para mujeres (Canal Caracol 2001-2003); Forense (Pilot for RCN, 2004) by Jorge Alí Triana; El niño del pantano, a 50 year anniversary TV special (Audiovisuales, 2004) by Jorge Alí Triana; Mujeres asesinas (Vista Productions, 2007) by Carlos Gaviria and Raúl García; and Dimensión Rado (Film produced for Channel 11, 2009).
 
Her time as an art director has also been spent working on TV series such as Asesinos (Endemol Argentina for the Discovery Channel, 2009); Chávez (Lulo Films for the Discovery Channel, 2009); Instinto asesino (Endemol Argentina for the Discovery Channel, 2010); Laberinto (Canal Caracol, 2011); Guerra paranormal (Descoger, 2011); Comando élite (2013); Sala de urgencias (Resonant, 2014); Luz de mis ojos (2015); Todo es prestado (2016); Descontrol (2017); Desconectados (2017) and La ventana (2018).