Miguel Cárdenas (b.1973 Bogotá, Colombia) lives and works between Bogotá and New York. He received his MFA from Columbia University in 2005 and his BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design in 1996.

Recent solo exhibitions include: Memorias del Colapso, Espacio Continuo, Bogotá (2025), Shadow Garden, Kendall Koppe at Margot Samel, New York (2024); Mystic Animals and the Juggling of Hot Stones, Kendall Koppe, Glasgow (2022); Cruzando el Umbral, EACHEVE, Guayaquil, Ecuador (2021); Beyond the Fence, Chapter New York, New York (2021); Un Mundo Flotando en el Espacio, Licenciado, Mexico City (2021); Despertar de los Demonios, La Balsa Arte, Bogotá(2020); CONDO, Koppe Astner at Metro Pictures, New York (2019) and Oasis, La Balsa Medellín, Medellín (2018).

Recent group exhibitions include: The Doors of Perception, Miguel Cardenas and Konrad Hanke, Nizza, Berlin, (2025) Domestico, Fundación San Lorenzo De Barichara, Barichara (2024); To be a giant and keep quiet about it (curated by Margot Samel), Yee Society, Hong Kong (2022); To be a giant and keep quiet about it, Margot Samel, New York (2022); Totems and Trophys, Proxyco, New York (2018); Obelisco, SN Macarena, Bogotá (2018); Mutatis Mutandis, Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Sede Chapinero,Bogotá (2017)

His work is included in the permanent collections of Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá; Museo de Arte dePereira, Pereira; and Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena, Cartagena; KAI10 Arthena Foundation, Dusseldorf and Museum of Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

Miguel Cárdenas is a multimedia artist whose practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, video animation, and wall murals, often extending into immersive exhibition environments. His work constructs poetic, timeless landscapes inhabited by enigmatic, archaeological forms—contemporary relics that are formally legible yet resist fixed meaning. Drawing on art historical references from Pre-Columbian cultures and European modernism, he merges elements of realism and abstraction to create mysteriously futuristic compositions. Rendered in impossible perspectives, his works unfold as theatrical stagings in which objects, animals, and costumed figures inhabit scenes suggestive of ritual and myth, both ancient and speculative. By integrating painting and sculpture within the exhibition space, Cárdenas transforms these imagined worlds into experiential environments, inviting viewers to step into the fiction of his work as if it could be encountered in real time.

Miguel Cárdenas is represented by Kendall Koppe, Scotland https://kendallkoppe.gallery/artists/31-miguel-cardenas/overview/

and Galeria Elvira Moreno, Colombia https://galeriaelviramoreno.com/artists/127-miguel-cardenas/biography/