The Brooklyn Rail

I first heard of Asher Remy-Toledo in September 2015, through a mutual friend, the artist Ricardo Arias. One day an email landed in my inbox, written with that blend of urgency and warmth I would later recognize as his signature: he was heading to Bogotá, then on to Medellín; he wanted to meet, he had heard about ISEA and the International Image Festival (Colombia), and meanwhile he was connecting me with Mike Stubbs from FACT Liverpool. In a single message, Asher was already weaving bridges across three continents. That was him: cosmopolitan by nature, someone who moved between cities and cultures with the same fluidity with which he crossed the boundaries between art, science, and technology.

From 2017 onward, Asher became a guest curator of the Festival Internacional de la Imagen, and from then on our paths never stopped crossing. Together we traveled through cities around the world, meeting at forums, panels, and conversations where we explored the arts and their future through the lens of electronics, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies. These were never cold academic exchanges: with him, everything became a celebration, a discovery, a burst of laughter. Asher had the rare ability to make the most complex ideas feel approachable, and to bring the most different people together on common ground.

Together we were preparing the 25th edition of the International Image Festival (September 11–18, 2026). He dreamed of expanding it: beyond Bogotá and Manizales, he wanted to bring it to Medellín, his hometown, closing a circle that connected his life between New York and Colombia. We will work to make that happen. That edition will carry his name and his spirit.

Asher kept his capacity for work, his humor, and his sharp intelligence until his very last days. I watched him fight with a dignity that did not ask for pity but for companionship. He never stopped thinking about the projects yet to come, the artists he wanted to champion, the connections still waiting to be woven.

Asher was a bridge. Between Medellín and New York, between art and technology, between Latin America and the world. Through Hyphen Hub and his tireless work as a curator, producer, and visionary, he built networks that today sustain hundreds of artists and thinkers. His legacy lies not only in the exhibitions he organized or the events he produced, but in the people he brought together and the dialogues he made possible.

He passed away on February 22, 2026, in Medellín. He was 62. But his energy, his big unmistakable laugh, and his boundless generosity continue to resonate in every one of us who had the privilege of walking by his side.