VALERIA GUERRA-GARCIA
Bio
Valeria is an artist who primarily works in oil painting. Her practice addresses themes of devotion and sacrifice, with a particular interest in the ways violence is disguised through opulence.
Influenced by her Catholic upbringing in Lima, her figurative paintings explore the tension between ritual and violence.
Her most recent work draws on the figure of the matador and the tradition of bullfighting, using the corrida as a space where ritualized violence is celebrated for its masculinity.
By focusing on ornamentation and the adorned body, Guerra-Garcia examines how visual excess transforms acts of violence into objects of reverence.
Statement
My practice explores devotion and sacrifice through the ways violence is transformed by aesthetic excess into something that can be revered. I am interested in how belief systems shape the body, and how surrender is recast as reverence, raising questions about where the boundary between love and violence is drawn.
Through painting, I examine femininity and masculinity as ritualized roles. The feminine body appears absorbed in acts of surrender, while masculinity is constructed through adornment and control, presenting violence as disciplined and worthy of celebration. In both cases, the body is positioned for consumption, functioning as an object or instrument of devotion.
By focusing on costume, ornamentation, and the staging of the figure, my work considers how visual excess conceals harm and allows violence to be digestible and desirable.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
