"VISIONS" 29 August through 20 September 2000

GALLERY OF THE SCHOOL OF ART, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL MAYOR DE SAN MARCOS
Lima, Peru

Rafo Diaz' paintings arise from a look that does not simply reproduce landscape solidity in Iquitos or certain stereotypes of the folk aspect but also tries to unveil the interstices of the social culture in this incomparable, exotic and tangible city without setting aside the musical esthetic of the technocumbia nor the visions caused by the ancestral ayahuasca or the recreation of some Amazon myths.
We may suggest that in his brief paint art journey (as Diaz is also a theater actor), one can detect the selection of a topic that ranges from ritual to worldly. In his former exhibits, he had interpreted some jungle myths and had approached the universe of bars, almost of whorish of certain sectors in Iquitos, changing it. In his creative preparation, his repeated experience with the ayahuasca has become a determinant that allowed him to work form the hallucinations it causes and its complex meaning.

Its condition as a self-made artist, although he attended the School of Arts of Iquitos briefly, makes it easy to patiently approach a portrait in bright coloring, giving his work a certain "naïf" and/or impressionist air to them, adapting his technique, though still in process and its painting ideas in an unusual balance. (This is an attractive component in the work of a self-made artist, the evidence of the struggle to own the means and resources that will allow him to portray his ideas.)

This exhibit in Lima is really Diaz' third show. The first one was in his native city and involves a group of paintings, with which he earned first place in the recent Regional Exhibit of Iquitos, prior to the Second National Art Competition.

Manuel Munive Maco