In a city of concrete towers and insufferable traffic, the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU) invites audiences in Bogotá to step inside a very different world: a sprawling, imaginative garden assembled not from earth, but from canvas, pigment, and vision.
Titled ‘Paraísos y jardines. La naturaleza representada’ (Paradises and Gardens: Nature Represented), the exhibition invites viewers into a verdant, symbolically charged universe of 147 works from the Banco de la República’s Art Collection. Curated by Luis Fernando Ramírez Celis, the exhibition is as much a reflection on the country’s biodiversity as it is a meditation on paradise, memory, and ecological loss.
Spanning four centuries – from 17th-century Flemish oils to contemporary video installations -Paraísos y jardines unfolds like a garden in bloom. There are paintings by Dutch masters Jan van Kessel and Jan Brueghel the Younger, alongside the vibrant Amazonian visions of Abel Rodríguez, known as “the namer of plants.”
Among the impressive works are leading names, among them, Antonio Caro, Milena Bonilla, Álvaro Barrios, Abel Rodríguez, Emma Reyes, Miguel Ángel Rojas, José Alejandro Restrepo, Ricardo Gómez Campuzano, Edward Walhouse Mark, Jorge Madriñán, María Fernanda Cardoso, Emma Reyes and María Isabel Rueda. Exhibited without the limitations of a defined timeline, together they chart Colombia’s evolving relationship with its natural world.
At its core, the collection hinges on the idea of the garden as a symbolic space – a man-made microcosm where nature is not only cultivated but interpreted. It’s a space where Eden meets entropy, and memory collides with ecological urgency.
Organized into four thematic sections, the exhibition opens with ‘Utopias’, a room that explores the garden as an idealized space of perfection. Here, viewers are reminded of how societies have long imagined paradises – walled gardens, enclosed Edens – as metaphors for harmony and order.
The second chapter – ‘Eden’ – explores the interplay between biblical imagery and tropical wilderness. Jan Brueghel the Younger’s Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is juxtaposed with Rodríguez’s The Annual Cycle of the Forest of Vega, a meticulous rendering of the Amazon as remembered by the Indigenous elder. It’s a dialogue between the mythical and the real, where paradise is both a lost origin and a living biome.
Further along, ‘Gardens, Parks, Flora and Fauna’ brings together a wide variety of representations – from colonial patios and urban parks to botanical studies and insect illustrations. These works reveal not only an aesthetic appreciation of nature, but also the scientific and cultural fascinations that have accompanied it over centuries. Architectural elements, such as fences and enclosures, appear alongside symbolic motifs like fruit and flowers, suggesting the way humans have long sought to domesticate and define their relationship to the wild.
The final section, ‘Flowering Garden’ draws the exhibition to a more somber, reflective close. In these works, flowers are no longer just decorative – they are symbols of transience, death, and the promise of eternal life. In this curated passage through paradise, viewers encounter the bloom and the decay of nature, beauty and ephemerality intertwined.
Designed with the precision and poetry of gardeners, the exhibition’s layout creates a contemplative interior landscape. It’s no accident that the curators describe their task as cultivating a “vergel interior” – an inner orchard. Though the walls are made of stone and not soil, the emotional terrain traversed by the artworks is rich and layered.
This is not the first time the show has been staged. A previous version debuted at the Museo del Oro Quimbaya in Armenia in 2022. But this Bogotá iteration delves deeper into the Banco de la República’s collection, showcasing rarely exhibited pieces that are usually kept under careful conservation.
In keeping with the spirit of the show, MAMU is also hosting interactive activities with local florists from nearby markets. These gatherings offer visitors the chance to create floral arrangements and learn from those who live by the rhythm of plants, bringing another dimension of community and ecological awareness to the experience.
Free and open to the public until June, 2025, Paraísos y jardines is a visual ode to Colombia’s lush natural heritage – and a poignant reminder of what is at risk. With climate anxiety and biodiversity facing increasing threats, the exhibition doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it encourages audiences to reflect beyond nostalgia, on the importance of preserving the gardens we have left, both real and imagined.
MAMU (Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia). Calle 11 No. 4-21, Bogotá
Open Monday, and Wednesday to Saturday: 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Sundays and public holidays: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Closed Tuesdays.
Free admission
 traces centuries of Colombian artists' relationship with nature - through oil, ink, watercolor and flowers.){kind=link}