Cali es Cali Otra Version is an exhibition of recent work by Colombian-American artist Carolyn Castaño who uses painting as a point of departure to investigate the lasting impacts of colonialism on the relationship between humans and the environment.  The exhibition contains a wide variety of media including photography, video and sculpture to investigate the ephemerality of memory and identity through immigration.

The title Cali es Cali, or Cali is Cali,  Castańo plays with two popular expressions: the first, Cali es Cali—an expression from her father’s hometown of Cali, Colombia, which is akin to the American adage, “There is no place like home;” the second is a nickname for California: “Cali”—a term popularized by LL Cool J in his 1988 hit song, “Going Back to Cali.”

In the exhibition, Castańo uses her late father’s photographic archive—comprised of 4,000 photographs, films, and videos—to explore the story of her Colombian family’s immigration to California. The photographs in the exhibition are juxtaposed next to paintings of the landscapes and botanical studies inspired by 18^th century German botanical explorer Alexander Von Humbolt (1769–1859) and Albert Berg (1825-1884) who undertook multiple studies of native birds, flowers, and plants of the Americas.  The publication of Berg’s series of engravings entitled Physiognomy of the Tropical Vegetation of the Magdalena River Valley, sparked European and American imaginations and fueled the desire and search for resources in the Americas.