Student and Emerging Artists of Loja*

Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts available at UTPL
Image of  one of the Huesos de Buda muralits,
young artists of Loja who have arrived on the world stage.

Loja, as the cutting edge of developing visual art in southern Ecuador, is one of the country's best kept secrets.  Two art programs, one at UTPL (Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja) a private university, and another at UNL (Universidad Nacional de Loja) the public university, have trained generations of technically advanced art students.  The sad news is that UNL is cutting their arts program, making an advanced arts degree out of reach for many talented young people in Southern Ecuador.

Fortunately, support and encouragement of young artists by Lojano artists with established careers comes from masters such as sculptor and painter Boris Salinas, who gives extensive instruction to the next generation of artists.  Boris' brother, painter Aquiles Salinas Ochoa and other well-known local artists like Bayardo Cuenca, have also formed a collective supporting young artists in and out of the academy entitled El ZAÑE Colectivo, named for a prominent Andean mountain peak in Loja's northern landscape.

Last, but certainly not least, is the unwavering and enthusiastic encouragement given to young artists by the energetic curator of the CCE (Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Benjamín Carrión Núcleo de Loja) public art galleries in Loja, Diego Villavicencio.  Diego, an artist himself and alumni of UTPL, early in his curatorial tenure at the national gallery outposts, raised the bar substantially helping Boris Salinas, and others at Loja's CCE, organize a year long show of artists under 20 titled Promesas, ArteLojano in 2018.  The inaugural group show presented 14 student and emerging artists, some still in high school. In the following months, most of the artists were given solo exhibits at CCE.  The series of exhibits have showcased the best young painters, sculptors, and multi-media artists.

Below is an index, a list in progress, of Loja's best young artists.  Many participated in "Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018."  A number of them have biographies in thus blog.  You'll see their HTML links.  This list will serve as a quick reference for important artists in Loja's burgeoning young art scene.  We assure you this is only the tip of the iceberg. 

VeróniCa Aguirre 

Augusto Arteaga, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE

Rubén Astudillo, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 

Oscar Benitez Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Nieves Gualan, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Tamara Jima, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

José Vicente Larrea, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Francisco Ordoñez, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Jessica Morocho, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018


Natalia Salinas, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Gabriel Salinas, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Jimmy Simbaña, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Danny Sarango, Promesas, ArteLojano, CCE 2018

Giselle Valareso, CCE 2018

Pablo Villa, CCE 2018

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ARTIST ~ Eduardo Kingman

Image
"Mano Grande" (Big Hands), 1981 ARTIST - Eduardo Kingman Riofrío  (1913 - 1997) Born in Loja, Eduardo is known as "the painter of hands" and was regarded as one of the masters of twentieth century expressionism.   He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Quito, with stops in Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, and in the United States at the San Francisco Art Institute.  Eventually he received a chair at the same institute, was the director of Quito's Colonial Art Museum, and a owned private gallery also in Quito.  While living in Quito, he became the protege of other famous Lojanos like writers Bejamin Carrion and Pablo Palacio.  His lithographs, woodcuts, and paintings concentrated on the social realities of Ecuador's indigenous people.  The artisit's deeply humanistic style captured the range of emotions from anguish, anger, and impotence in the face of injustice, to the quieter feelings of tenderness and devotion.  As well as painting, Eduardo wrote a
Read more

ARTIST - Gabriela Jaramillo Soto

Image
ARTIST - Gabriela (Gaby) Jaramillo Soto (1997 - ) Studies plastic arts at Universidad Nacional de Loja (UNL). Recent exhibitions include "Mizizi" roots Samay Ayapash-soul and spirit (“MIZIZI” RAÍCES SAMAY AYAPASH- ALMA Y ESPÍRITU) and "Ancient Ancestral Art" (Arte Anígena Ancestral) in 2019. Artist quotes: "My art is indigenous-Ancestral and social cut. The proposal I'm finally developing is an ancestral tribute. All that hidden memory, which for some reason is lost, I rescue it. Every proposal becomes autobiographical. I've looked inside of me to find myself. That land is where I grew up and has its story."  "I just know that I give the best of me that I give everything I can and I have, I fight, I effort, someday everything will be worth it." Ñawikuna (Faces)     facebook.com/gaby.soto instagram.com/gabie    
Read more

ARTIST - Alívar Villamagua

Image
"Dance of the Duendes" from the 2017 exhibition "My Free Thought" ARTIST - Alívar Villamagua   (1947 - ) 71-year-old Lojano Alívar Villamagua Montesinos is an internationally known talent who has been painting for 50 years.  In an interview with the newspaper El Diaro Cronica, Villamagua said of his early interest in drawing and painting as an expression of his feelings, "My first sketches I did in school where I noticed simple things like watching a butterfly fly or observing the moon." After graduating in 1970 as a painter and sculptor from the Escuela de Fine Arts of the State University of Cuenca, Villamagua returned to Loja.  He married, had a family, and founded the first school of fine arts in the province.  He eventually became a professor and then director of the School of Fine Arts of at the National University of Loja. Known for producing highly expressive and dream-like images of his beloved local landscape and its inhabitants in p
Read more