ERNESTO SOLANA

Guadalajara, 1985

Ernesto Solana (b. 1985, Guadalajara) is an artist working across photography, sculpture, and installation. His practice explores the porous boundaries between culture and the “natural.” Drawing from botanical forms, animal traces, and human-made detritus—often in states of transformation, suspension, or containment—his work reflects on the ritualization and abstraction of nature, and the delicate tension between beauty and control. Proposing a multispecies perspective that decenters the human, Solana envisions the landscape not merely as a backdrop but as a collaborator—an extension of ourselves and our desires. His work delves into themes such as extinction, scientific collections, an-archival methodologies, and the lingering impact of anthropocentric systems. Informed by ecological thought, mythology, and material culture, his practice invites a more intimate and critical relationship with the environments we construct and inhabit.

Solana has presented his solo exhibition Instituto de la Neoprehistoria: Capítulo II at the Guachimontones Archaeological Site in Teuchitlán, Mexico, and has participated in exhibitions including Eje Neovolcánico at Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Off to Elsewhere at Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich (curated by Çağla Ilk); Memory Shop at Casa Wabi, Puerto Escondido (curated by Nicolas Bourriaud); Entre Irse y Quedarse at Palace Enterprise, Copenhagen; As to Be Inaudible at C/O Berlin (curated by Jörg Colberg); and Transatlántico at Mana Contemporary, New Jersey. He is also the author of Systema Artificialis, a photobook that examines the consequences of the Anthropocene and proposes new relational models between humanity, culture, and the more-than-human world. Solana holds a diploma in Forest and Wildlife Conservation, a photography degree from the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York, and an MFA in Photography from the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut.