Julián Cerón Bolaños (born in Santiago de Cali, Colombia) is a sculptor whose practice bridges industrial materials, organic movement, and the expressive potential of the human hand. Growing up around his family’s concrete manufacturing business, Cerón developed an early fascination with structure, form, and the hidden architecture within objects. This foundation evolved into a lifelong exploration of materials—including iron, wire, wood, clay, resin, fiberglass, stone, glass, and liquid plastic—each chosen for its ability to hold tension, balance, and motion. His sculptures range from intimate miniatures to monumental works over seven meters tall, and they have been exhibited and collected across Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, the United States, Martinique, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Japan.

Cerón is internationally recognized for his iconic ant sculptures, each crafted from a single piece of material. These works embody unity, resilience, and collective action—qualities the artist has admired since childhood while observing ant colonies. His public ant sculptures can be found in Cali (Colombia), Barcelona (Spain), Blanes (Spain), and in numerous private collections worldwide. Defined by their slender lines and dynamic silhouettes, Cerón’s figures often appear to defy gravity, challenging viewers to reconsider balance, weight, and the invisible forces that hold structures together. His current body of work deepens this exploration through iron-and-stone pendulum sculptures that rely on tension and equilibrium to stand, embodying both fragility and strength.

With a career spanning more than two decades, Cerón has exhibited widely in cultural institutions, galleries, and public spaces—from the Banco de la República in Santa Marta to major exhibitions in Barcelona, Cali, and the Mediterranean coast, where one of his installations rests beneath the sea. Through every project, he continues to pursue the hidden “soul” of materials, revealing movement and meaning from within the simplest of forms.

See more of his work HERE