Leoncio Villanueva
Bio
Leoncio Villanueva (Lima, Peru, 1947)
Graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Peru with a Gold Medal in 1971.
He lived in France from 1974 to 1987, then moved to Mexico where he worked until 1991.
He resided in Belgium from 2005 to 2015, the year he returned permanently to Peru, where he currently lives and works.
He has held 35 solo exhibitions in Paris, Rome, Bogotá, Hamburg, Mexico City, Miami, Washington, D.C., and Lima.
He participated in the Venice Biennales (1980 and 1984) and the São Paulo Biennial (1981).
He participated in ARCO Madrid (1980) and Documenta Kassel.
His work is held in numerous collections and museums in the Americas and Europe.
Statement
Leoncio Villanueva
Like all cyclical changes, in recent years I've gradually returned to freer geometric forms. I'm interested in creating a rich, harmonious palette that hints at different worlds coexisting in the same space, suggesting to the viewer realities within realities. It's very important to me that the contrast between geometry and expressionism coexist, like a struggle between reason and emotion. I could reduce the work to a square or rectangle facing a stain or scribble, or a very expressive piece of graffiti, but that wouldn't be enough for me. It would seem too simplistic and easy, even though it would suffice to represent the conflict that has always existed in human history: thought and reaction, reason and violence. But it's not about illustrating a feeling, which might be suitable for the cover of a book on the subject. Art goes beyond that; it's up to the viewer to interpret it, to discover those hidden worlds.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
