Gabriela Estrada Loochkartt is a Colombian artist based in Chicago. Her sculptures, weavings, and performances embody ways of thinking in which care is activated as a form of healing against systems of domination. Her ecofeminist research is tactile and smeared with earth. Her work listens attentively to the Mothers of Earth and the Grandmothers of Water. Her practice is a weaving ritual of reparation that resists the erasure of feminine lineages and entities, both human and non-human. Her pieces are invitations to honor the Earth as a sacred womb, denouncing patriarchal and colonial systems as the origin of the exploitation of wombs, seeds, waters, and territories.
Gabriela graduated from Universidad de los Andes with a Meritorious thesis project (2020). She obtained an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2025), where she received the Joan Livingstone Scholarship. Her three solo exhibitions were presented at Policroma (2021), La Cometa (2022), and SGR (2023). Her work has been exhibited at the X International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art (COL), Museo Casa Diego Rivera (MX), Museo La Tertulia (COL), ARTBO (COL), UNAM (MX), the National Museum of Mexican Art, Co-Prosperity, Elastic Arts, Hyde Park Art Center and Comfort Station. She was nominated for the Sara Modiano Award and collaborated with Artesanías de Colombia in the Arte Vivo initiative. She was awarded a fellowship to participate in the Vermont Studio Center artist residency and she will be participating at ACRE this upcoming summer.
Image: Gabriela Estrada Loochkartt, Dios tiene una Madre (God has a Mother), Video performance and Achiote seed, Duration: 10:14 min, 2024