ART OF “NUESTRO MUNDO” In this series, we highlight works on view in the exhibition “Nuestro Mundo.”
Athena Quispe, Chiquitix: En La Selva Me Interno Yo, acrylic, cochineal, flour, canvas, highlighter, 2017.
Athena Quispe, Soy una Rosa Que Se Muere Sin Rocio, acrylic, cochineal, highlighter and glitter, 2017.
Artist’s statement: The realms I create find inspiration in my heritage which includes Quechuan weavers, farmers, shamans/botanists, artisans and performers. My paintings of the Amazon and the high Andes borrow from a culture that did not use cartography to capture its world the way European invaders used maps to conquer and terrorize the continent’s civilizations. The story of this conquest and our land, the Tahuantinsuyu, can be found in the works of Guamán Poma and Blas Valera, 16th-century writers native to Peru.
Like my ancestors, before and after colonialism, who were textile artists, I repeat figures over and over again in my work. Many credit the white artist Andy Warhol with the introduction of repetition in art, but we Peruvians have used repetition to tell a story since the beginning of our art.
The exhibition “Nuestro Mundo” features two dozen paintings by young adults ages 18 to 26 who are mentored by Art Division, a non-profit organization that trains and supports Los Angeles youth from underserved communities who are pursuing careers in the visual arts.  The students used “Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin,” another Huntington exhibition, as inspiration.
“Nuestro Mundo” is open weekends only Sept. 16, 2017, through Jan. 8, 2018, in the Brody Botanical Center.
