In this Episode of Art is Awesome, Host Emily Wilson spends time with Columbian born artist Paola de la Calle.
Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
This week, Emily welcomes Paola de la Calle, a Colombian American multidisciplinary artist based in San Francisco. Her work spans textiles, ceramics, printmaking, and writing, and often explores themes of immigration, land sovereignty, family memory, and diaspora identity.
About Artist Paola de la Calle:
Paola de la Calle is a Colombian-American multidisciplinary artist whose work examines home, identity, borders, and nostalgia through the use of textiles, printmaking, and sculpture. In her practice, De la Calle combines photographs sourced from family albums and found images which she prints on textiles, as well as poetic texts, paintings made with coffee instead of paint, and found objects, to mine the aesthetics of nostalgia and examine the socio-political relationship between the United States and Colombia.
She is a graduate of the New York Foundation of the Arts Immigrant Artist Program in 2019 and the lead artist for the Caravan for the Children Campaign as part of her residency with Galeria de la Raza in 2020. She was awarded fellowships at KALA (2022) and The Studios at MassMOCA (2025). She has attended residencies at the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY and Casa Lu in Mexico City, MX. De la Calle was awarded the 2026/2027 Ann Chamberlain Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco State University.
She’s been featured on Hyperallergic’s “A View from the Easel”, “Through My Eyes” on Hulu, NPR, Refinery29, The Boston Art Review, Latina Magazine, Glasstire, and VOGUE among others.
Visit Paola's Website: PaoladelaCalle.com
Follow Paola on Instagram: @PaoladelaCalle
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com