Art for Colombia: Roselle Gallery joins a benefit Auction through art and solidarity

On August 22, 2026, Roselle Gallery joined BIARCO – Bienal Internacional de Arte and Punto de Encuentro Arte in Miami for Subasta de Arte por Colombia, a benefit art auction that brought together the artistic community in solidarity with people affected by the earthquake in Colombia.

For this special initiative, Roselle Gallery donated an artwork by Esteban Machado Díaz, joining artists, collectors, galleries, cultural organizations, and friends of the arts around a shared purpose: transforming creativity into meaningful support.

Held both in person and online, the auction demonstrated how art can move beyond contemplation and collecting to become an expression of solidarity, connection, and collective action.

According to the initiative, 100% of the proceeds were designated to support the affected communities.

Art as an Act of Solidarity

Art has always had the ability to connect people across cultures, geographies, and experiences. In moments of adversity, that ability can acquire an even deeper significance.

For Roselle Gallery, participating in Subasta de Arte por Colombia reflected a fundamental belief: art not only has the capacity to move us emotionally, but can also bring people together, inspire action, and become a tangible expression of solidarity.

The benefit auction created precisely that kind of encounter.

Artists contributed their work. Collectors and members of the community participated in the initiative. Cultural organizations provided a platform where creativity could become a vehicle for support.

Within this collective effort, every donated artwork represented more than an artistic contribution. It became part of a larger gesture toward communities facing the difficult process of recovery and rebuilding.

From Exhibition to Solidarity: The Journey of Frida, la catrina

At the heart of Roselle Gallery’s participation was an artwork whose journey had already become part of the Gallery’s recent cultural history.

Roselle Gallery donated Frida, la catrina (2026), by Cuban artist Esteban Machado Díaz, a lienzografía intervenida measuring 150 × 120 cm (59.1 × 47.2 in).

Only days earlier, the work had been presented as part of Roselle Gallery’s participation in the 31st International Ballet Festival of Miami, within Frida Mysticism, a special exhibition in which Machado revisited imagery from his artistic universe and intervened the works with elements inspired by classical ballet.

In Frida, la catrina, the artist’s symbolic language brings together references to Frida Kahlo, Mexican visual culture, transformation, memory, and identity. For its presentation during the Festival, the work acquired an additional dialogue with movement and performance through Machado’s intervention.

Its subsequent donation to Subasta de Arte por Colombia gave the work another dimension.

From an exhibition setting where painting entered into dialogue with dance, Frida, la catrina moved into another kind of encounter—one centered on solidarity, collective action, and support for Colombia.

The transition reflects an idea fundamental to Roselle Gallery’s vision:

The life of an artwork does not necessarily end when an exhibition closes.

An artwork can continue its journey. It can encounter new audiences, acquire new contexts, generate new conversations and, at certain moments, contribute to something larger than itself.

Through its donation, Frida, la catrina moved from being part of a cultural dialogue to becoming part of a humanitarian gesture.

A Cultural Community United for Colombia

The benefit auction brought together different members of the artistic community around a common purpose.

Organized by BIARCO – Bienal Internacional de Arte and Punto de Encuentro Arte, the event took place in Miami on August 22, 2026, with both in-person and online participation.

For Roselle Gallery, initiatives of this nature demonstrate another dimension of the relationships that can be created around art.

Galleries, artists, collectors, cultural organizations, and audiences form an ecosystem that normally comes together around exhibitions, fairs, acquisitions, and cultural experiences. But those same relationships can also become networks of solidarity when circumstances require a collective response.

In that context, the value of an artwork extends beyond its material or aesthetic qualities.

A donated work becomes a contribution.
A bid becomes an act of participation.
And an artistic community becomes a community capable of responding together.

Art Beyond the Gallery

Roselle Gallery’s participation in Subasta de Arte por Colombia also reflects a broader vision of what a contemporary gallery can represent.

Beyond exhibiting and promoting contemporary Latin American art, the Gallery seeks to create opportunities for artists and artworks to enter into dialogue with different disciplines, institutions, communities, and audiences.

Sometimes those encounters take place in an exhibition.

Sometimes they emerge through music, literature, film, or dance.

And sometimes art finds its purpose in solidarity.

The journey of Frida, la catrina illustrates precisely this possibility. Within a short period, the work inhabited two very different cultural contexts: first as part of an artistic dialogue during the International Ballet Festival of Miami, and later as a contribution to a collective initiative supporting Colombia.

The artwork remained the same, yet its relationship with the public—and the meaning created around it—continued to evolve.

When Art Becomes Hope

For Roselle Gallery, it was an honor to participate in Subasta de Arte por Colombia and to contribute through the donation of Frida, la catrina.

The Gallery extends its gratitude to BIARCO – Bienal Internacional de Arte and Punto de Encuentro Arte for bringing the initiative together, as well as to the participating artists, collectors, cultural organizations, friends of the arts, and everyone who contributed to making the event possible.

Because in moments of adversity, every gesture matters.

And when a community comes together around art, an artwork can become more than an object to contemplate.

It can become a gesture of solidarity.

A connection between people.

A contribution toward rebuilding.

And, ultimately, a symbol of hope.

With Colombia, through art.