An Espresso with Catalina Renjifo: Sculptor on Clay, Community & Research-Based Art
Published: June 18, 2025 | Interview by Romina Provenzi | 5 min read
Portrait in the studio - photo credit: Tom Andrew
Catalina Renjifo is a sculptor based in Oxford, UK, whose research-based practice explores non-verbal communication through clay, drawing, and printmaking. After studying sculpture and installation at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá and living in New York and France, Renjifo rediscovered her artistic practice through her children's art education while in the UK. She completed a master's degree in Art Education at Oxford Brookes University and has been a member of Magdalen Road Studios in Oxford since joining the community. Working primarily with clay since 2016, her investigative practice combines material experimentation with knowledge creation, resulting in works like "Thinking Vessels" and "Thought Forms" that articulate complex ideas through physical materials rather than words. Her work emerges from a feminist perspective, addressing themes of motherhood, artistic identity, and the value of making art outside traditional institutional frameworks. In this conversation, Catalina discusses redefining artistic success, balancing motherhood with creative practice, and building artistic community. Below is our conversation, part of my series 'An Espresso with...'.
Success on Your Own Terms
What does success mean to you as an artist?
The art world isn’t just the large galleries and top institutions where art is valued as good in terms of money or esteem. As an artist, success means spending time working in the studio despite the doubts and obstacles that I’m facing every step of the way. It means doing the work because it’s important to me, and it’s what I want to do. But it’s also about engaging with your practice, helping others, educating your audience and valuing any art created from the outset. It is learning about yourself by facing your doubts and mistakes, and trusting that making artwork is a valuable thing.
Art, Family, and Finding the Way Back
How did you start your journey into art, and what happened along the way?
There was always art around, my mum being an artist and my dad a musician. I attended art school at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, where I chose to pursue sculpture and installation, given my strong interest in how things work and their structure, but I also mastered printmaking. After I graduated in Bogotá, I needed a dose of real life. I lived in New York for six years, then in France for three years, my children were born, and we moved to the UK. It was important to me that I raised my children in a way that I felt they needed to be cared for, and I wanted them to understand things in certain ways, and to have a connection with them. But it was hard to come to terms with being essentially a stay-at-home mum and not working, as I come from a very hardcore feminist family. Then, it was through my children’s art education that I rediscovered my art practice, which involves a range of investigative, research-based processes, including sculpture, drawing, printmaking, and photography, depending on the project’s specific needs.
Creating Your Own Art World
How did you develop your art practice, and what’s at the core of it?
First, I taught at craft and art clubs, then I enrolled in a master's degree to study art education at Oxford Brookes University. The course focused on re-engaging with your practice through the process of making work on your own without judgment, as a way to understand the world. I also joined Magdalen Road Studios in Oxford, and being part of this community has been vital to me in many ways. About five years ago, we started an open criticism group because artists need to be engaged and create their own community to make an art world they want to be part of. It all helped to develop my practice. Since 2016, I have chosen clay as a medium because it’s a moist, applicable and plastic material. My work begins with material experimentation and drawing, which is the basis for everything and also my way to think and develop ideas. I also enjoy the process because it helps me to understand how things are made. But knowledge creation and understanding are also very important to me. You can learn a lot about the world, and you sense this, although you cannot translate some of the things into words. I have chosen to articulate my ideas physically because words aren’t my material. Art processes non-verbal communication, and my work is an investigation into that, because an artwork is a complex articulation of materials, emotions and ideas that are evoked visually.
Reflections on This Conversation
Speaking with Catalina revealed how artistic practice can be reclaimed and redefined on one's own terms, outside traditional institutional validation. Her journey from Bogotá through New York and France to Oxford demonstrates the intersection of motherhood, feminism, and creative identity.
Three key insights emerged:
Success means making work that matters to you, not meeting external metrics of gallery representation or financial value, while also supporting others and educating audiences.
Community creates possibility. From joining Magdalen Road Studios to co-founding an open criticism group, Catalina demonstrates how artists must actively build the art world they want to inhabit.
Material thinking is a form of knowledge. Working with clay offers a way to understand the world and articulate complex ideas that cannot be expressed in words, making art a unique form of investigation and communication.
Learn more about Catalina Renjifo's work at www.catalinarenjifo.com
Work 1 - Thinking Vessels photo credit: Angus Child
Work 2 - Thought Forms, photo credit: Tom Andrew
If you enjoyed this conversation, you might also like my interviews with:
Teresita Fernandez's interview in Elephant magazine
Yoshitomo Nara's ‘Lessons with Clay’ was published in Elephant magazine
Yinka Shonibare interview in Printmaking Today
Explore more conversations in my Portfolio or subscribe to receive new interviews from the ongoing series ‘An Espresso with…’
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