Amazonian pop art

also: Amazon pop art · wild naive

movement 1990s-present Peru South America

Amazonian pop art (also 'Amazon pop art' or 'wild naive') is a contemporary movement that emerged in the late 1990s among self-taught artists in the suburbs of Iquitos, Peru - a city with no art school and, at first, no art market. Its mural-scale works mix Amazonian culture and mythology, European motifs, and commercial and cinematic imagery absorbed through cable television and video, all rendered with intense, saturated color and psychedelic density that reflects the ayahuasca experience. The work divides into 'diurnal' paintings in full color and 'nocturn' pieces painted in phosphorescent material that glows at night or under black light. Artists decorate houses, stilted palafittes and market walls of the Belén district. Main voices include Piero, Ashuco, Lu.cu.ma, Luis Sakiray and Christian Bendayán.

Painter Christian Bendayán with one of his jungle-pop canvases at the opening of his show at Sala Luis Miró Quesada, Miraflores, 2012
Painter Christian Bendayán with one of his jungle-pop canvases at the opening of his show at Sala Luis Miró Quesada, Miraflores, 2012CC BY 2.0 (credit: Municipalidad de Miraflores; painting by Christian Bendayán) · source
Night-lit mural of Amazonian fauna and indigenous motifs at the Plaza de Armas, Iquitos
Night-lit mural of Amazonian fauna and indigenous motifs at the Plaza de Armas, IquitosCC BY-SA 3.0 (credit: Percy Meza) · source
Painted house wall in the Belén district of Iquitos: stilted palafittes over the river
Painted house wall in the Belén district of Iquitos: stilted palafittes over the riverCC BY-SA 2.0 (credit: Suedehead) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Intense, saturated chromaticism and psychedelic density
  • Murals on vernacular architecture - huts, palafittes, market walls
  • Collage of Amazonian culture, European motifs and pop/commercial imagery
  • Nightclub and nightlife scenes, often with sensual and feminine subjects
  • Phosphorescent 'nocturn' works that glow at night or under black light

Key figures

  • Christian Bendayán (fl. 2000s) — Peruvian painter of the Iquitos scene whose jungle-pop canvases reached international galleries
  • Lu.cu.ma (fl. 2000s) — Iquitos muralist working between popular culture and psychedelic vision
  • Luis Sakiray (fl. 2000s) — Mural painter of the movement's phosphorescent night works

Sources

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