La Chola Poblete (Guaymallén, Argentina, 1989) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, performance, and installation, critically engaging with colonial histories, indigenous identity, and queer representation. Based in Argentina, she challenges cultural and racial stereotypes through intricate compositions that merge South American mythology, religious iconography, and contemporary political discourse.
Poblete’s work is rooted in material experimentation, particularly in her masterful watercolors, where she reinterprets the Virgin Mary and other emblematic figures as sites of hybridity, resistance, and transformation. By incorporating elements of Andean culture, popular aesthetics, and personal narratives, she constructs alternative visions of identity that question imposed hierarchies and celebrate fluidity. Her practice extends beyond traditional mediums into performance, often embodying her alter ego, La Chola, as a means of reclaiming indigenous and queer visibility.
Poblete has exhibited widely across Latin America and Europe, including at the Venice Biennale, and was named Deutsche Bank’s “Artist of the Year” in 2023. Her work has been shown in major institutions such as the PalaisPopulaire in Berlin, where she presented Guaymallén, an immersive installation weaving religious, political, and indigenous motifs. Through her nuanced approach to history and representation, Poblete continues to expand the possibilities of art as a tool for cultural critique, identity formation, and collective memory.
