Johanna Calle was born in 1965 in Bogotá, Colombia, where she lives and works. Following her studies in the visual arts at the Talleres Artísticos of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá from 1984 to 1989, Calle received a British Council scholarship in 1992 to earn a master’s degree at the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. Her work draws on a range of archival and deciphering techniques, often associated with everyday life, to address the violence of recent Colombian history and evoke the victims of forced disappearances. 

Johanna Calle has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, including major prizes and honorary recognitions in Colombian art salons (1996–2003), a fellowship at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2001), and international grants and residencies in Europe and the United States (2008–2013).

She has been included in international biennials such as The Sidney Biennial (2016), The São Paulo Biennial (2014); SITE Santa Fe (2014) and the Istanbul Biennial (2014).

Select exhibitions include: La Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris (2017); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017); the Museum Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2016); Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris (2013); the Drawing Room, London (2013); Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco (2012); Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California (2012); Sàn Art in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2012) and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (2011).

Her work is included in institutional collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires; Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach; Museum of Bogota; National Museum of Colombia, Bogota; National Bank of the Republic of Colombia, Bogota; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; Sur Collection, San Francisco; Comfenalco Antioquia, Medellin; Enersis Collection, Santiago; and Teorética Museum, San Jose.