Chonon Bensho
Bio/CV
Available works
Chonon Bensho
Chonon Bensho
(Ucayali 1992) Chonon Bensho was born in the community of Santa Clara on the shores of Lake Yarinacocha, and as a Shipiba woman she learned to embroider and paint as a child, maintaining a deep connection with the earth, the waters, the trees and the plants; those that make up the cosmos of her work.
Her academic learning is captured in canvases and fabrics, configuring scenes that reverberate intertwined with the patterns of the kené, that sort of writing of the Shipiba memory that represents the deepest manifestation of identity, spirituality and creativity. Chonon travels it as a path, guided by a spirit of experimentation typical of contemporary art, but always in dialogue with other times, other spaces, other netes.
Her academic learning is captured in canvases and fabrics, configuring scenes that reverberate intertwined with the patterns of the kené, that sort of writing of the Shipiba memory that represents the deepest manifestation of identity, spirituality and creativity. Chonon travels it as a path, guided by a spirit of experimentation typical of contemporary art, but always in dialogue with other times, other spaces, other netes.
Bio/CV
Chonon Bensho
Chonon Bensho is a multimedia artist and poet from the Shipibo-Konibo People of the Peruvian Amazon. Chonon Bensho was born in 1992 in the Indigenous community of Santa Clara. As a child, her mother and grandmothers cured her with specific medicinal plants that are thought to be able to teach the secrets of the Shipibo designs. Those who have been cured with them will dream of and learn from their ancestors, and be able to apply this knowledge during waking hours.
A descendant of a long-lasting lineage of female artists and visionary healers, Chonon apprenticed in the arts, ethnobotany, and cosmological knowledge, before attending art school, from which she graduated in 2018 with a thesis on the Shipibo design system known as Kené. The term’s etymology suggests a link with the verb kéenti, which means to love or care for, and emblemizes the environmental ethics and spiritual vision of her Indigenous Nation.
Chonon Bensho won the 2022 Painting Award of the National Reserve Bank of Peru, being the first Indigenous woman to be recognized with the prize, considered the most important in Peru. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Metsá Nete: the beautiful visionary world of Chonon Bensho at the Alliance Française in Lima, Peru, curated by Christian Bendayán; and A River, a Snake, a Map in the Sky, in Basel, Switzerland, curated by Kateryna Botanova as part of the Culture Scapes Art Festival.
She lives and works in Santa Clara de Yarinacocha, Peru.
A descendant of a long-lasting lineage of female artists and visionary healers, Chonon apprenticed in the arts, ethnobotany, and cosmological knowledge, before attending art school, from which she graduated in 2018 with a thesis on the Shipibo design system known as Kené. The term’s etymology suggests a link with the verb kéenti, which means to love or care for, and emblemizes the environmental ethics and spiritual vision of her Indigenous Nation.
Chonon Bensho won the 2022 Painting Award of the National Reserve Bank of Peru, being the first Indigenous woman to be recognized with the prize, considered the most important in Peru. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Metsá Nete: the beautiful visionary world of Chonon Bensho at the Alliance Française in Lima, Peru, curated by Christian Bendayán; and A River, a Snake, a Map in the Sky, in Basel, Switzerland, curated by Kateryna Botanova as part of the Culture Scapes Art Festival.
She lives and works in Santa Clara de Yarinacocha, Peru.
Available works
“Eariki (Green Document of Identity)”, 2024
137 x 151 cm
Screen prints on fabric with embroidery
“Koros nonti jiwi / Design of cross, canoe and tree”, 2024
Variable measurements
Paint on wood
Chonon Bensho
(Ucayali 1992) Chonon Bensho was born in the community of Santa Clara on the shores of Lake Yarinacocha, and as a Shipiba woman she learned to embroider and paint as a child, maintaining a deep connection with the earth, the waters, the trees and the plants; those that make up the cosmos of her work.
Her academic learning is captured in canvases and fabrics, configuring scenes that reverberate intertwined with the patterns of the kené, that sort of writing of the Shipiba memory that represents the deepest manifestation of identity, spirituality and creativity. Chonon travels it as a path, guided by a spirit of experimentation typical of contemporary art, but always in dialogue with other times, other spaces, other netes.
Her academic learning is captured in canvases and fabrics, configuring scenes that reverberate intertwined with the patterns of the kené, that sort of writing of the Shipiba memory that represents the deepest manifestation of identity, spirituality and creativity. Chonon travels it as a path, guided by a spirit of experimentation typical of contemporary art, but always in dialogue with other times, other spaces, other netes.
Chonon Bensho
Chonon Bensho is a multimedia artist and poet from the Shipibo-Konibo People of the Peruvian Amazon. Chonon Bensho was born in 1992 in the Indigenous community of Santa Clara. As a child, her mother and grandmothers cured her with specific medicinal plants that are thought to be able to teach the secrets of the Shipibo designs. Those who have been cured with them will dream of and learn from their ancestors, and be able to apply this knowledge during waking hours.
A descendant of a long-lasting lineage of female artists and visionary healers, Chonon apprenticed in the arts, ethnobotany, and cosmological knowledge, before attending art school, from which she graduated in 2018 with a thesis on the Shipibo design system known as Kené. The term’s etymology suggests a link with the verb kéenti, which means to love or care for, and emblemizes the environmental ethics and spiritual vision of her Indigenous Nation.
Chonon Bensho won the 2022 Painting Award of the National Reserve Bank of Peru, being the first Indigenous woman to be recognized with the prize, considered the most important in Peru. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Metsá Nete: the beautiful visionary world of Chonon Bensho at the Alliance Française in Lima, Peru, curated by Christian Bendayán; and A River, a Snake, a Map in the Sky, in Basel, Switzerland, curated by Kateryna Botanova as part of the Culture Scapes Art Festival.
She lives and works in Santa Clara de Yarinacocha, Peru.
A descendant of a long-lasting lineage of female artists and visionary healers, Chonon apprenticed in the arts, ethnobotany, and cosmological knowledge, before attending art school, from which she graduated in 2018 with a thesis on the Shipibo design system known as Kené. The term’s etymology suggests a link with the verb kéenti, which means to love or care for, and emblemizes the environmental ethics and spiritual vision of her Indigenous Nation.
Chonon Bensho won the 2022 Painting Award of the National Reserve Bank of Peru, being the first Indigenous woman to be recognized with the prize, considered the most important in Peru. Her most recent solo exhibitions include Metsá Nete: the beautiful visionary world of Chonon Bensho at the Alliance Française in Lima, Peru, curated by Christian Bendayán; and A River, a Snake, a Map in the Sky, in Basel, Switzerland, curated by Kateryna Botanova as part of the Culture Scapes Art Festival.
She lives and works in Santa Clara de Yarinacocha, Peru.
“Eariki (Green Document of Identity)”, 2024
137 x 151 cm
Screen prints on fabric with embroidery