Born in Medellín, Colombia. Received his Baccalaureate at Colegio San José, in his hometown, in 1966. The same year, at night, studied painting and drawing at Medellin’s Institute of Fine Arts, receiving a half scholarship to continue his studies the following year, but instead enrolled in the School of Architecture of the National University of Colombia (1967), graduating as an Architect in 1974. Simultaneously with his architecture studies, he pursued his career as an artist, studied ceramics for two years with his Aunt Silvia Ferrer (1968-69), and taught at the Instituto de Artes and the Colegio Mayor de Antioquia, in the areas of architectural draftsmanship, and advertisement.
During the fourth year at the School of Architecture (1971), received First Prize at the II Salón de Arte Joven, a competition held at the local art museum, the Museo de Zea (currently Museo de Antioquia). Presented his first solo exhibition in Medellín at the Banco Grancolombiano (1972), introduced by the Colombian novelist Manuel Mejía Vallejo. The same year received an award at the III Salon de Arte Joven, and in 1973 a third award at the same salon, and exhibited in the Colombian cities of Cali and Popayan. In September of 1974, showed his work in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and in September visited Washington, D.C., where participated in a group exhibition at the Organization of American States titled “Five Artists from Medellin”, with great success. In November of the same year, was nominated to the National Award at the Salón de Artistas Colombianos, in Bogotá.
In 1975 was hired as Art Director and Creative of Leo Burnett and Novas, in Medellín, but resigned to concentrate in his first book, a novel titled “Te Quiero Mucho Poquito Nada” (I Love you, I Love You Not), which he illustrated and published underground with his own money. The book made him very well known in Colombia, and in the next year, while maintaining a very active career as a painter and draftsman, initiated the publication of an underground leaflet dedicated to art criticism entitled “Yo Digo” (Y Say)” . He also taught a semester at the Faculty of Industrial Design of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, in Medellín, and continued visiting the United States. In 1976 published along with the Museo El Castillo his second book “Nosotros: Un trabajo sobre los artistas antioqueños” (a study on his contemporary artists from Medellin). In April of 1977 settled in Washington, D.C. His ideas and visual expression continued for long time exerting a good deal of influence on the younger generation of artists in Medellin.
Throughout a career that spans forty years, Félix Ángel has presented more 100 exhibitions in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, and The United States; participated in more than 300 art fairs, collective exhibitions and international competitions in the Western Hemisphere and Europe; executed several public commissions; and receive several distinctions and appointments, including awards at the biennials of Mexico City (1980), and Montevideo (Uruguay, 1981).
Public collections include those of the Bass Museum in Miami, the Blanton Gallery of the University of Texas, the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Detroit Institute of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, Riverside Museum of Art, Washington D.C.´s Art Museum of the Americas (OAS), and Essex Collection of Latin American Art, in England.
Commissions include six outdoor and one indoor public work (concrete, metal, and ceramic tile), in the cities of Medellin and Pereira (Colombia), including four murals for Medellin’s Metro System.
In 1978 joined the Art Museum of the Americas of the Organization of American States, first as Assistant of long-time director José Gómez Sicre, then as exhibition designer, and lastly as Curator of Temporary Exhibitions, until 1989.
In addition to his earlier books, he co-wrote in 1988 “The Latin American Spirit: Art and Artists in the United States” for the Bronx Museum of the Arts, acting as curator of two of the six sections of the exhibition with the same name; and in 2008 he published “Nosotros, Vosotros, Ellos: Memoria del Arte en Medellin durante los Años 70” (We, They, Them: A Memoir of the Arts in Medellín during the 1970s). He has also published hundreds of articles and essays in Spanish, English, French and Italian, including essays for the catalogue of the Latin American Pavilion at the 51st and 52nd Venice Biennial.
Has served as curator of more than 100 international exhibitions (including all countries of the Western Hemisphere, and Spain, France, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and Japan), writing most of the catalogues, and contributing with his advice to a number of institutions in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States; has lectured in more than twenty universities in the United States; has been invited as Juror in art competitions in San Salvador, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela and The United States; has served as Commissioner on the Arts and Humanities for the City of Washington (2002-2007). Currently he is a Contributor Editor to the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) of the Library of Congress of the United States of America (2000-2010). In 1992 was called by the Inter American Development Bank, in Washington, D.C., to implement the IDB Cultural Center, becoming its Curator, and serving as Director since 2000.