February 7, 2019 – March 17, 2019
Public: 21,399 visitors
SEVEN new Bolivian artists
The art exhibit SIETE will kick off Manzana 1 Espacio de Arte’s yearly agenda around a group of young up and coming generation of Bolivian artists.
Douglas Rivera, Herlan Balboa, Rubén Perales, and the artist Santiago Junior Ayala make up The Apthapi Collective. They are important actors in the field of academic art education provided from the UMSA University in La Paz and the Public University of El Alto. In the group, we also find Arturo Suman, a new and promising artist from Santa Cruz de la Sierra. They all come together around the art of drawing as the focus from which their production stems.
All these artists focus on realism and, among them, we also find two sculptors from La Paz, Facundo Vásquez and Yarmila Laura Montes, who work in stone and wood.
Manzana 1 Espacio de Arte thus fulfils its commitment to provide exposure to artists who renew our country’s art.
ARTURO SUMAN • Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 1996. Suman’s mediums are oil painting, carbon and graphite. He began his art career at 16. He developed his technique focusing on drawing the human body, studying daily Realist painters of the 19th century such as Joaquín Sorolla, John Singer Sargent and Emile Friant. He created a new technique and narrative skill with the help of the teachings of painter Sergey Chubirko, professor at The Russian Art Academy in Florence, Italy, who taught him the value of drawing as the essential support of painting.
SANTIAGO JUNIOR AYALA • Oruro, 1986. Ayala trained at the Hernando Siles National Academy of Fine Arts and majored in painting in 2010. However, he usually executes drawings with graphite. He also studied Graphic Design at the State University of La Paz, UMSA, to complement his art studies. He has had individual and collective exhibits in La Paz and Santa Cruz. He was awarded first prize in drawing in the 12th edition of the Villa Real de San Felipe de Austria National Fine Arts Contest, in Oruro, in 2018. He lives in La Paz since he was a child.
YARMILA LAURA MONTES • La Paz, 1987. Sculptor. She studied in the Faculty of Architecture and Arts at the State University of La Paz, UMSA. She participated in sculpture and painting symposiums and workshops and received the Buho Blanco scholarship to study sculpture under Juan Bustillos in Santa Cruz de la Sierra. She participated in individual and collective art exhibits. Her works are showcased in national and international private collections.
DOUGLAS RIVERA • La Paz, 1992. Rivera majored in Fine Arts, and graduated with academic excellence in Graphic Design from the Faculty of Architecture and Arts from the State University of La Paz, UMSA. He studied visual arts in the Municipal School of Arts, EMDA, and Film at the Institute for Film and Audiovisual Arts, ECA. He is the youngest artist to win the Grand Prize at the LXII edition of the Pedro Domingo Murillo Art Contest in La Paz, 2014. He also won the first municipal award for young artists in painting, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in 2017; second prize for Illustration at the Eduardo Abaroa contest in 2013; the grand Prize of the Faculty of Arts contest organized by UMSA in 2013, the Amanda Gallardo prize for best video montage in 2015, first prize at the Ivar Mendez National Painting contest, 2012, first prize in the Freddy Alborta Municipal Photography Contest in 2012, First Prize at the National Photography Award organized by the Architects’ Guild in 2010. He has participated in individual and collective art shows in Bolivia and abroad.
FACUNDO VÁSQUEZ • La Paz, 1978. Vásquez studied in the Municipal School for Fine Arts and the Public University of El Alto, graduating with a minor in Sculpture. He received many awards for his works in printmaking, urban intervention and ceramic arts in contests organized by the University of El Alto. He participated in the 5th International Sculpture Symposium in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in 2015, and the First International Stone Sculpture Symposium in Las Peñas, La Paz, in 2018.
HERLAN BALBOA • La Paz, 1985. He studied in the National Academy for Fine Arts (ANBA) and Graphic Design in UMSA. He participated in collective exhibits in Bolivian galleries and museums. His work is part of private collections in Bolivia and abroad. In 2018 he won the first place in the Eduardo Abaroa Plurinational Drawing Contest and the first place for Illustration “Migration of water”. In 2017, he received honorable mentions in the Fernando Montes Peñaranda Contest to Promote Drawing and the Fourth Contest “Illas in Fine Arts, and first place in Gustavo Mendez drawing contest, organized by Ivar Mendez Foundation in La Paz.
RUBÉN PERALES CARVAJAL • La Paz, 1990. Rubén Perales Carvajal studied Fine Arts and obtained a minor in printmaking and graphic design at UMSA University. He is part of the Bolivian Printmakers Collective. He participated in collective shows throughout Bolivia. In 2018, he received honorable mentions in the Fernando Montes Peñaranda Contest to Promote Drawing and the 14 de Septiembre Art Contest in Cochabamba for printmaking, and the 12 Stations of Via Crucis contest organized by Museo Gallery. In 2015, he received the first prize in the Printmaking Annual Contest organized by the Fine Arts Faculty of UMSA. In the same year, he was a finalist at the Eduardo Abaroa Plurinational Printmaking Contest. In 2014, he won the first place for printmaking in the Annual Contest organized by the Fine Arts Faculty of UMSA.
