artist statement
My artistic quest has led me to understand the natural world as an indivisible whole that is intrinsically active, interconnected, ever-evolving, and self-organized. It suggests that our human condition is an expression of nature.
Thus, I approach my practice holistically, engaging in experimental, technological, and cross-disciplinary creative methods. Outside the predominant narratives in music, sound, and the visual arts, I propose a line of inquiry that links human with non-human entities and knowledge in its broadest sense.
I create real-world environments that expand our physical experience by unveiling the natural vibrational activity of objects and spaces audibly and visually. These works include immersive multi-sensory installations, sound and light sculptures, and vibrational objects. They employ vibration and other energy phenomena as primordial materials, approaching their diverse perceptual manifestations in a unified fashion, blending music, installation, sculpture, and performance.
I develop analog techniques and technologies that render perceptible otherwise intangible physical phenomena. Computer coding allows me to “hack” such non-perceptible activity and to compose generative narratives and behaviors. State-of-the-art digital tools and ideas are present throughout my creative process. New, old, and DIY technologies coalesce in my creative process, making technology the context, tool, and by-product that gives rise to my poetic interpretation of nature.
By advancing art not only as a form of expression but also as a powerful form of knowledge, I aspire to contribute to the historical quest to decode the unfathomable essence of nature and the complexity of all the processes that make us human
biography
Alba Triana is a Miami based, Colombian-born sound and intermedia artist. Through immersive installations, sound and light sculptures, and vibrational objects, Alba’s work explores the relationship between the essence of the natural world and our human condition. Delving into vibration, energy, interconnectedness, and nature’s self-organization, Triana’s oeuvre probes how the vitality of everything—alive and inert—greatly determines who we are and what emerges from ourselves.
Alba has received the Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction (AT), ArtFields Grand Prize, CIFO G&C Award, South Arts Fellowship (US), and Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (IT, US). She was the winner of awards in Colombia such as the IDCT National Composition Contest, National Electroacoustic Music Contest, and Alliance Française Best Exhibition Award. Alba has obtained commissions, residences, and grants from Pro Helvetia (CH), Kronos Quartet, Oolite Arts (US), GMEB (FR), and the Ministry of Culture (CO).
Her work has been shown at Ars Electronica Festival, Lentos Kunstmuseum (AT), Centquatre-Paris, Biennale des Arts Numériques (FR), Orange County Museum of Art (CA, US), and ISEA—International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Alba’s oeuvre belongs to art collections in Europe, Latin America, and the US, including Solo, Otazu (ES), Banco de la República de Colombia, and MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (CO).
Supported by Pro Helvetia—Swiss Arts Council, from 2018 to 2021, she researched vibration and interconnectedness at a particle level, visiting and consulting with world-class institutions like CERN—European Council for Nuclear Research, EPFL, and the University of Geneva (CH).
awards
2024 ArtFields Grand Prize, SC, US
2023 Prix Ars Electronica—Award of Distinction, Austria
2023 CIFO—Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Artist Award, US
2022 Colección SOLO—Madrid, Acquisition Prize, Untitled Art, Miami, FL, US
2020 South Arts Fellowship, FL, US
2018 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Italy, US
2008 Best Exhibition of the Year Award, Alliance Française de Bogota, Colombia
1998 First prize, “Otto de Greiff” National Contest, Colombia
1997 First prize, National Composition Contest, IDCT, Colombia
1995 First prize, National Electroacoustic Music Contest, Colombia
grants and residencies
2018-20 Cultural Exchanges Program, Coincidencia/Pro Helvetia, Switzerland
2018 Art Residency, Oolite Arts, US
2009 National Creative Grant Award, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
2001 Art Residencies Award, FONCA Mexico | Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
1998 National Creative Grant Award, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
1997 Art residency, L’Institut International de Musique Électroacoustique, Bourges, France
1996 Art residency, L’Institut International de Musique Électroacoustique, Bourges, France
2024 Knight Foundation Digital Commission series, Locust Projects, Dialogue with the Primordial Sea, Miami, FL, US
2023 CIFO—Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Vibrant Self, Miami, FL, US
2016 Kronos Quartet, Music for Four Resonators, San Francisco, CA, US
2013 UCLA, Institute for the Research in the Arts, Body Music, CA, US
2001 American Composers Forum, Noneto, Los Angeles, CA, US
commissions
collections
ArtFields Collection, US
Banco de la República de Colombia Art Collection, Colombia
CIFO— Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collecion, US
Harddiskmuseum Repository
Junco Collection, US
MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia
Mosquera Collection, US
.NEWART {collection;}, Spain
Otazu Foundation Collection—2020 Arco Prize for Collecting, Spain
SOLO Collection, Spain
solo exhibitions
2025 Life of The Lifeless, Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2025 The Music of Things, Aluna Art Foundation, Miami, FL, US
2024 Dialogue with the Primordial Sea, Locust Projects, Miami, FL, US
2021 Estados vibracionales, MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia
2018 Polifotonía, MAMM—Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia
2017 Alba Triana - Arte Sonoro, Teatro Colón, Bogota, Colombia
2017 Music in the Waiting Room, Art@Work | Mosquera Collection, Miami, FL, US
2017 Microcosmos, Oolite Arts | Subtropics Festival, Miami, FL, US
2016 Soy la Voz Abstracta de la Naturaleza, Beta Gallery, Bogota, Colombia
2015 Silent Music, Oolite Arts | Subtropics Festival, Miami, FL, US
2013 Sounding Score, Miami Beach Cinematheque | Subtropics Festival, Miami, FL, US
2011 Música Interactiva: Alba Triana, Alliance Française de Bogota, Colombia
2009 Partitura sonora, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogota, Colombia
2009 Gamelan Électronique, Les Voûtes | La Colombie à Paris, France
2008 Obra en proceso, Alliance Française de Bogota, Colombia
2008 Gamelán Electrónico, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogota, Colombia
selected group exhibitions
2025 Smart Cities, New York Latin America Art Triennieal, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY, US
2025 PSCINÉTICO, Festival Fotosíntesis 2025, Medellin, Colombia
2025 ARTBO — International Art Fair of Bogotá, Casa Hoffmann, Colombia
2025 CYFEST 16: Archivo de sentimientos. Un viaje, Cyland, Centro de Cultura Digital, Mexico City
2025 ArtFields Winners Collection, Myrtle Beach Art Museum, SC, US
2025 ARCO Madrid, Max Estrella Gallery, Spain
2024 Energy Fields, Getty Foundation PST ART: Art & Science Collide, Fulcrum Arts, Chapman University, Orange, CA, US
2024 Untitled Art, Casa Hoffmann, Miami, FL, US
2024 Continuum, ArtTec - Iberoamerican Digital Art Congress, Fundación Paiz, MUNAG, Antigua Guatemala, Guatemala
2024 ArtFields Festival, Lake City, SC, US
2023 Voltaje—Salón de arte y tecnología, Bogota, Colombia
2023 Archivos atómicos, Harddiskmuseum, Bogota, Colombia
2023 Viceversa, MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia
2023 Prix Ars Electronica 2023, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
2023 Dualities in Equalities, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria
2023 Southern Voices/Global Visions, ArtFields, Lake City, SC, US
2023 El día que el universo cambió, Max Estrella Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2023 Media Under Distopia 3.0 WASD, MUD Foundation, Miami, FL, US
2022 Untitled Art 2022, Casa Hoffmann, Miami, FL, US
2022 freq_wave [Pacific, Los Angeles], Fulcrum Festival 2022, Los Angeles, CA, US
2022 Beyond the Sounds of Silence, Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL, US
2021 Media Under Dystopia 2.0, MUD Foundation, Miami, FL, US
2020 Sónar +D, CCCB—Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona, Spain
2020 Southern Prize & State Fellows, South Arts, The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA, US
2020 Otazu Foundation, 2019 New Acquisitions exhibition, Pamplona, Spain
2019 La fábula de Aracne, 45 SNA, UT Art Museum, Bogota, Colombia
2019 Altered States of Consciousness, Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, FL, US
2018 Between a View and a Milestone, Oolite Arts, Miami, FL, US
2017 Les Faits du hasard, Biennale Internationale des Arts Numériques | 104-PARIS, France
2017 ISEA — International Symposium on Electronic Art, Manizales, Colombia
2015 III Points Festival, Wynwood Warehouse Project, Miami, FL, US
2011 Arte sonoro en Colombia, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
2010 Vociferous, Diapason Gallery, New York, NY, US
selected concerts | performances
2021-22 The Music of Things, BDD, MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia
2019 Antífona, Festival Interciclos, Querétaro, Mexico
2017 Kronos Quartet, Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo, Bogota, Colombia
2014 CMMAS—Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras, Morelia, Mexico
2013 Recital de Pian, XXII International Festival Zilele Muzicii Noi, Chisinau, Moldova
2007 Alba Triana y su obra, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogota, Colombia
2004 Contemporary Colombian Music, York University, Heslington, UK
2003 DeciBelio, Teatro Americano, Bogota, Colombia
2003 Colón Electrónico, Teatro Colón, Bogota, Colombia
2002 Desde el Sur, IDB—Inter-American Development Bank, Washington D.C.,US
2001 College Music Society Annual Meeting, Santa Fe, NM, US
1997 Concert des Fédérations Nationales de France, Synthèse Festival, Bourges, France
1997 Suite Logique, Futura Festival, Crest, France
education & scholarships
2003 Ph.D studies scholarship, University of California San Diego, US
2002 Ph.D. studies, Music Composition, University of California, San Diego, CA, U.S.,
2001 MFA, double degree, Composition New Media | Integrated Media, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, U.S.
2000 Graduate studies scholarship, California Institute of the Arts, US
1999 Graduate studies scholarship, Fulbright
Commission, US
1999 Graduate studies scholarship, Fundación
Mazda, Colombia
1997 BFA, Merit and Academic Excellence Distinction, Music Composition, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia
lectures & conferences
2024 Keynote, Exploring Interactive Music through Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan
2024 Locust Late at the DiLL, Locust Projects, US
2023 Prix Forum, Ars Electronica 2023 – Digital Musics & Sound Art, Austria
2022 In Conversation: Dr. Adriana Herrera, Rolando Peña, and Alba Triana, University of Miami Lowe Art Museum, US
2021 Conversación al Sur, MAMBO—Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia
2021 Pop Up Lab - Alba Triana, PEER Lab, Herb Alpert School of Music, UCLA, US
2020 Keynote, New Spaces for the Irradiation of Sound, Sónar+D, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
2020 Keynote, Resistance at the End of the World Symposium, Miller Institute for Contemporary Art, Carnegie Mellon University, US
2019 Art Talks - Alba Triana, MBUS, Florida International University, US
2017 Keynote, ISEA—International Symposium on Electronic Art, Colombia
2017 Kronos Quartet Composers, Teatro Colón, Colombia
other professional experience
2025 Review Panelist, Project Room Open Call, Locust Projects, Miami, FL, US
2025 Juror, ArtFields Competition, Lake City, SC, US
2023 Review Panelist, New Music US Creator Fund, US
2019 Juror, FETA prize in sound art, US
2012-20 Executive Board of Directors Member, SF Composers Alliance, Miami, FL, US
2008 Juror, National Artistic Residences Awards, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
2006 Juror, National Composition Awards, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
1998 Juror, National Musical Band Contest, Ministerio de Cultura, Colombia
1998-99 Art Department Advisor, Ministerio de Cultura
de Colombia
1997-98 Professor, Music Theory and Composition, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
1997 Music Theory Director and Professor, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Bogota, Colombia