Verónica Penagos
Bio
Born in Lima, Peru (1990). A self-taught artist, she holds a Master's degree in Art and Design Research from the Barcelona University Center for Design and Art (EINA) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain, and a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). She currently works as a painter and multidisciplinary artist in Lima, Peru. Penagos has participated in numerous group exhibitions and international art fairs in Peru, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, and South Africa.
Recent participations include “The Others Art Fair” in Turin, Italy; “Indeterminate Body” at La Infinita, Barcelona; “Joseph Beuys, 100 Years Later” by Bloc Art Perú, at the Laboraleatorio art space, Miraflores, Lima; “Sputnik” at the José Carlos Mariátegui House Museum, Lima, Peru, and the Alliance Française, Cusco, Peru; and “New Times” at MAD, the Andrés del Castillo Museum, and the Mineral Museum. “Salsa Picante, Lucha Permanente” at Casa Fugaz, Monumental Callao, Peru. She has also had two solo exhibitions: “Salsa, la posesión rítmica” at the BTH Art Gallery, Lima, Peru; and “Callao, de alma salsera” at Casa Fugaz, Monumental Callao, Peru.
In addition, she was a finalist for the BCRP 2025 painting prize; winner of the “Arte in Situ” competition at the Ricardo Palma Cultural Center in Miraflores with a collective project, “Retícula” (Ni Studio Collective: Gabriela Aquije, Luciana Graña, and Verónica Penagos), Lima, Peru. She was also a finalist in the following competitions: “I Concurso de Dibujo – dos generaciones” (1st Drawing Competition – Two Generations) – British Cultural Center of Miraflores, Lima; and “II Concurso de Dibujo – dos generaciones” (2nd Drawing Competition – Two Generations) – British Cultural Center of Miraflores, Lima.
Statement
I conceive of art as a flexible and perpetually evolving practice, one from which my boundaries shift. In my artistic practices, I attempt to expand my bodily awareness. Thus, through diverse visual and performative media, I seek to perceive myself as a body in constant interdependence with the movement that surrounds me.
Much of my work has revolved around dance, especially genres with a mestizo sound, such as salsa. I enjoy being part of salsa scenes because the codes change, values shift, and the language becomes purely corporeal.
In this way, art becomes an invitation to delve deeper into the idea of being a body in continuous becoming, intertwined with the events of the world. This involves understanding myself through practices that allow me to gain an embodied, situated, and dynamic perspective by noticing the multiplicity of my experience.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
