Karen Paulina Biswell

Karen Paulina Biswell’s artistic practice challenges the implicit power hierarchies generated by the act of ‘taking’ a photograph, instead encouraging a more participatory relationship between subject and viewer. Often depicting indigenous peoples, Biswell consistently returns to themes of morality, vulnerability, and human fate in her work. She emphasises the mystery of her subjects, encapsulating the tension between the real and romanticised narratives of femininity and womanhood. 

Karen Paulina Biswell was born in 1983, growing up between Colombia and Paris. She studied Art History at the Sorbonne, Paris. She has been nominated for many international awards, including the Prix Pictet in 2019 and 2025, and was the Strike a Pose Festival (Germany) winner in 2021. Biswell has exhibited globally, with solo exhibitions across Europe, China, and South America. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum, Miami; the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, Paris; the Collection des Rencontres de la Photographie, Musée Réattu, Arles; and the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia, amongst others. 

Biswell lives and works in Bogotá and Paris.