Untitled 2017-18 Manuel Chavajay (b. 1982 Guatemala)
Often depicting aspects of everyday life and landscape in his home of San Pedro La Laguna, Chavajay’s work contends with the contemporary conditions affecting his Tz’utujil community. In the Los Desaparicidos paintings he uses his familiar iconography – images of dugout canoes and shimmering, reflective water – to exquisitely haunting effect. Here the watery echo of the missing figure evokes the presence-absence of “the disappeared” through a deeply contemplative summoning of loss.
Untitled 2017-18 Manuel Chavajay (b. 1982 Guatemala)
Often depicting aspects of everyday life and landscape in his home of San Pedro La Laguna, Chavajay’s work contends with the contemporary conditions affecting his Tz’utujil community. In the Los Desaparicidos paintings he uses his familiar iconography – images of dugout canoes and shimmering, reflective water – to exquisitely haunting effect. Here the watery echo of the missing figure evokes the presence-absence of “the disappeared” through a deeply contemplative summoning of loss.