The artist Jorge Velasco Granizo won the National Painting Salon Independence of Guayaquil 2023

He National Painting Hall of the Independence of Guayaquil, 65th edition, celebrated the inauguration and awards ceremony on Friday. First place went to the Guayaquil native Jorge Velasco Hail, for his work entitled The down-to-earth one. An act of unforeseen circumstances, a future rejected.

The judges felt that this painting confronts the viewer with a representation of those elements/furniture of the city that appear to be stacked, stacked, abandoned objects. “It invites us to think visually about cities, the constructions/scaffolding that quickly accumulate not only materials, but also capital. They transmute cities into a future of overwhelming growth, but they also fall into conversion to devouring global systems and models. predict in itself the decline, the inevitable collapse’ reads out the jury’s verdict.

“This is where art can perhaps – certainly – occur critically contingent in the search for sovereignty – for the utopia of Latin America,” he adds.

Second place went to the Machaleño Jairo Bustamante Larrea for his work entitled Lupus Pellis zodiac sign. The artist believes that his work tells the current reality of the country: “Fear, violence, unnatural death, the power struggle, control of drug trafficking routes.”

“From the beginning, I built the support with a hexagonal mesh and newspaper, glued with layers of paint mixed with resin, cement and earth, which caused degradation in earthy gray tones and a rough texture like a solid and cold wall,” Bustamante describes in his text. curatorial.

“The perforations mimic the bullet holes left in the skin of our cities. The cracks in the concrete and the shadows in the holes symbolize the “scars in the urban landscape and the void left in families by the victims of a society abandoned by the authorities”, To explain.

The artist mentions that each fissure is an imaginary line that unites the stars, based on the theories of ancient astronomers. “The composition of the shoots is inspired by the constellation Lupus (…). In addition, lupus is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system itself mistakenly attacks healthy cells and tissues, just as crime leaves traces in our society.”

Honorable mentions were awarded Jeniffer Errazuriz Coello for his work Streets before you dream, from the Scouting series, Noemí Cabrera Reinoso for his painting Expressionist from Guayas, Howard Taikeff for his work Puma 24 hours, already Laura Sosa Delgado For his work Dear God, when it’s my turn to go to heaven, please let me bring my husband here.

The jury consisted of the artists Servio Zapata González, Pamela Pazmiño Vernaza And Julio Peña Tomalá. The director of this year’s Salon was the visual artist Patricia Leon Guerrero.

León indicated that this year’s call is surrounded by violence and alarms about catastrophes being unleashed across the planet. “These are times of great discouragement, with calls for the decapitation and elimination of works of art on countless stages around the world. with greater power than decades ago, as social networks constitute pluridiverse materials that drive political action. And we creators are in that transition from virtuality to abysses.”

Martha Rizo Gonzálezdirector of the core Casa de la Cultura of Guayas, sees the hall as a testimony to the human spirit and the diversity of our experiences. “Here artists from different cultures, styles and perspectives come together, united by passion, creation and the search for beauty in its purest form”.

The exhibition at the National Salon of Independence Painting in Guayaquil brings together the work of 33 artists. People You can visit the exhibition in the Manuel Rendón Seminario Visual Arts Museum Room, on the first floor of the House of Culture, center of Guayas, Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Saturday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The exhibition is open until October 31. (JO)