Bio
Name: Sebastián Rodríguez Alarcón
Born: 1990, Bogotá, Colombia
Lives and works: Paris, France
My work explores light as a spiritual and ethical language.
Through minimal photographic compositions and controlled spaces, I search for moments where silence, geometry and luminosity suggest a form of inner order — fragile, intimate, almost sacred.
Each image is a small architecture of attention: a place where perception slows down, and the viewer is invited to inhabit clarity rather than spectacle.
Artist Statement
Born in Bogotá, Colombia (1990), I am an artist, a lawyer, and a storyteller—identities that may seem disparate, yet are profoundly intertwined. My work explores the intersections of identity, sexuality, history, and human connection through vernacular photography and collage. By recontextualizing personal and collective archives, I aim to question inherited narratives and illuminate the structures that shape our shared existence.
Trained in law at Universidad de los Andes and McGill University as an Open Society Foundations Scholar, I have spent the past decade working in international advocacy—engaging with issues of human rights, migration, and gender equality. Alongside this work, art has always been my way of seeing, remembering, and reclaiming the world.
From early experiments in analog photography to formative experiences at New York’s Whitney Museum, my visual language evolved around the dialogue between aesthetics and ethics. Later studies in business at the University of Sydney introduced a sense of strategy and global awareness that continue to inform my interdisciplinary practice.
Today, my work embraces the immediacy of the everyday. I use my phone camera intentionally—as a gesture of accessibility and defiance—to challenge ideas of authorship and hierarchy in art. For me, the medium is secondary to meaning: art’s true power lies in its capacity to reveal emotion, truth, and transcendence. Each image becomes a fragment of legacy, a meditation on continuity and belonging.
Sexuality, love, and intimacy stand at the core of my work—not as isolated themes, but as vital forces that sustain creativity and selfhood. In reclaiming queer narratives as natural and essential, my practice becomes an act of resistance against erasure, a bridge between personal memory and collective transformation.
Living and working in Paris, I engage with philosophical and spiritual dialogues across cultures. My artistic practice exists between vulnerability and power, presence and absence, the individual and the universal. It is a search for beauty that endures—a language of light, silence, and human truth.
Selected Exhibitions
2012 — Como Perros y Gatos, Group Exhibition, The Warehouse Art Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia
2007 — Group Exhibition, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., USA
2006 — Coordenadas, Colegio San Bartolomé La Merced, Bogotá, Colombia
Education
2021 — MBA, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2019 — Ambassador, Education Program, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
2015 — LL.M. in Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2013 — LL.B., Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Grants & Awards
2024 — Nominated, Visual Story Photography Award, The Independent Photographer, London, UK
2019 — 30 Under 30 Role Model, Out for Australia & The Boston Consulting Group, Sydney, Australia
2019 — Director’s Scholarship, The University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, Australia
2014 — Fellowship in Law, Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, USA
2014 — 3MT/MT180 Competition, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2013 — Justice James K. Hugessen Fellowship in Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2013 — Rathlyn Foundation Fellowship in Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
2013 — Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council Fellowship, Government of Canada
2013 — Open Society Foundations Scholarship, New York, USA
2009 — Ciro Angarita Barón Scholarship, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia
Selected Publications
Rodríguez-Alarcón, S., & Montoya-Robledo, V. (2019). The Unrestrained Corporatization and Professionalization of the Human Rights Field. Inter Gentes, 2(3).
Rodríguez-Alarcón, S., Miller, A., Cesario Alvim-Gomes, J. (2019). Zika before the Brazilian Supreme Court: From a Delay in Hearing to Denial of Rights? Yale Law School (JOTA).
Rodríguez-Alarcón, S. (2016). Why Colombians Rejected the Peace Agreement? HuffPost.
Rodríguez-Alarcón, S. (2015). Beyond Discrimination: A Reading from the Social Model of Disability to the Mental Health Conditions of LGBTQ People. McGill University Libraries.
Rodríguez-Alarcón, S., & Arango-Olaya, M. (2015). Intervention before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (OC-22/16). Center for Reproductive Rights, New York, USA.
Copyright & Intellectual Property Notice
Copyright & Moral Rights
All works and materials on this website — including photographs, text, design elements, and digital media — are the exclusive intellectual property of Juan Sebastián Rodríguez Alarcón and are protected by international copyright laws, treaties, and moral rights.
The artist retains all rights to the integrity and authorship of the works displayed.
Use and Permissions
Any use, reproduction, modification, adaptation, distribution, display, or commercial exploitation of this content — in whole or in part — is strictly prohibited without prior written authorization from the artist.
This includes, but is not limited to:
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Digital or print reproduction for personal or commercial purposes.
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Use of images in AI training datasets or machine learning applications.
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The minting or sale of works as NFTs or blockchain-based assets.
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Use in advertisements, editorials, or promotional materials without explicit consent.
Unauthorized use constitutes a violation of copyright and moral rights and may result in legal action, including formal takedown requests and other remedies under applicable law.
Fair Use and Educational Reference
Limited non-commercial use of the content for educational, scholarly, or journalistic purposes may be permissible under applicable “fair use” or equivalent doctrines — provided that:
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Proper attribution is given to Juan Sebastián Rodríguez Alarcón, and
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The material is not altered or misrepresented.
When in doubt, please seek written authorization prior to any use.
AI and Digital Manipulation
No material from this website may be used for the creation, training, or modification of AI-generated reproductions, deepfakes, or derivative works that distort or reinterpret the original artistic intent.
The artist expressly reserves moral rights to preserve the authenticity and integrity of all works presented.
NFTs and Blockchain
The tokenization, minting, or sale of any work from this website as an NFT or similar digital asset is strictly prohibited unless explicitly authorized in writing by the artist.
Any unauthorized blockchain-related use will be considered an infringement and pursued accordingly.
Jurisdiction and Legal Framework
This notice applies worldwide. Enforcement may be pursued under relevant national and international frameworks, including:
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The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works
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The U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17, U.S. Code)
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The European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market
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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and equivalent international provisions
Legal action may be initiated in any competent jurisdiction at the discretion of Juan Sebastián Rodríguez Alarcón.
Contact
For licensing, collaborations, or legal inquiries, please contact:
