Beatriz Jaramillo

In the community of Willowbrook, an unincorporated part of Los Angeles adjacent to Watts, Beatriz Jaramillo has used her art practice to uplift forgotten voices, stories, and data about the land contamination of Magic Johnson Park, the largest urban park in South Los Angeles. Her work investigates how various government agencies and urban planning policies rooted in white supremacy neglected to protect the community, causing widespread adverse health conditions and the deaths of dozens of residents of Ujima Village, the housing projects built on top of the contaminated land. Through community building with the local Willowbrook Community Garden, Beatriz and Self Help Graphics & Art have worked to reframe how communities can mitigate environmental hazards by collaborating on a multi-year workshop series focusing on the intersection between nature, art and healing.

Artist Biography

Beatriz H. Jaramillo is a visual artist who explores the relationship between nature and culture. In her art, she uses the landscape as a metaphor to highlight the tensions arising from the separation between the two and invites viewers to reflect on their connection with nature. 

Beatriz studied Architecture in her native Colombia and earned a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from Los Andes University. She later moved to Los Angeles, where she studied Ceramics at Cerritos College and earned a Master's in Art Education in 2009. In 2015, she obtained an MFA in Studio Art with an emphasis on Ceramics from California State University Los Angeles. She has exhibited her work at various galleries and museums in Los Angeles and Bogota, and in 2019, she was awarded an art residency (AIR) at Los Angeles Clean Tech Incubator (LACI) to integrate art, science, and technology with community participation and inspire meaningful dialogues about environmental issues. 

She is also an Art Educator and has served as a teaching artist for ArtworxLA, the City of Commerce, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Norton Simon Museum. Additionally, she has served as a faculty member at Cal State University LA, teaching Ceramics.