News
José Vera Matos, winner of the EFG Latin America Art Award in association with ArtNexus
14.12.2019
José Vera Matos was selected as the winner of the 2019 EFG Latin America Art Award in collaboration with ArtNexus. The announcement of the award was made on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019, at the Pinta Art Fair, Miami, Florida.
The acquisition award of a Latin American artist’s work is chosen through a pre-selection process (each of the nominees are awarded the back cover of the ArtNexus Magazine) in five Latin American art fairs and has been held for 9 consecutive years. The purpose of the award is to promote the production of the visual arts of Latin American artists and raise awareness of regional fairs in Latin America, among international collectors. The selection is made by Celia Birbragher, director and editor of ArtNexus, and an advisor curator at each fair.
This year, Vanderlei Lopes was nominated in SP Arte, São Paulo, the advisor curator was Fernando Oliva; José Vera Matos was nominated in ART LIMA, Perú, with Sharon Lerner; Lake Verea was nominated in arteBA, Buenos Aires, with Eva Grinstein; Ivan Argote was nominated in ArtBO, Bogotá, with Julia Buenaventura; this year no artist was pre-selected in Ch.ACO, Santiago de Chile, as the fair was postponed for 2020.
José Vera Matos (born in Lima in 1981) studied at the Escuela Nacional Superior Autónoma de Bellas Artes of Perú. He has participated in residences such as Vermont Studio Center, Triangle Arts in New York as part of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Scholarship, and the Delfina Foundation Residence in London.
The work of José Vera Matos revolves around the investigation of the complex history of contemporary Latin America. It translates tensions, ruptures and coincidences between two ways of understanding opposite reality, produced as a result of the conquest, but in conflict until today. Through geometric shapes that refer to pre-Hispanic architecture, the artist thus draws a horizon of shapes in constant conception. According to Max Hernández “Vera Matos represents a kind of historical investment, by symbolically imposing an Inca structure on writing, it cancels the Spanish domination, one of the main instruments of colonial power.”
He has recently exhibited at the Cartier Foundation in Paris, at the Lima Museum of Art, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Delfina Foundation in London, Museo del Barrio in NY, among others.
His work is part of the collection of the Lima Art Museum, The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, The Cartier Foundation in Paris, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, The Davidoff Foundation in Switzerland, and now, the EFG Capital Collection in Miami.
The acquisition award of a Latin American artist’s work is chosen through a pre-selection process (each of the nominees are awarded the back cover of the ArtNexus Magazine) in five Latin American art fairs and has been held for 9 consecutive years. The purpose of the award is to promote the production of the visual arts of Latin American artists and raise awareness of regional fairs in Latin America, among international collectors. The selection is made by Celia Birbragher, director and editor of ArtNexus, and an advisor curator at each fair.
This year, Vanderlei Lopes was nominated in SP Arte, São Paulo, the advisor curator was Fernando Oliva; José Vera Matos was nominated in ART LIMA, Perú, with Sharon Lerner; Lake Verea was nominated in arteBA, Buenos Aires, with Eva Grinstein; Ivan Argote was nominated in ArtBO, Bogotá, with Julia Buenaventura; this year no artist was pre-selected in Ch.ACO, Santiago de Chile, as the fair was postponed for 2020.
José Vera Matos (born in Lima in 1981) studied at the Escuela Nacional Superior Autónoma de Bellas Artes of Perú. He has participated in residences such as Vermont Studio Center, Triangle Arts in New York as part of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation Scholarship, and the Delfina Foundation Residence in London.
The work of José Vera Matos revolves around the investigation of the complex history of contemporary Latin America. It translates tensions, ruptures and coincidences between two ways of understanding opposite reality, produced as a result of the conquest, but in conflict until today. Through geometric shapes that refer to pre-Hispanic architecture, the artist thus draws a horizon of shapes in constant conception. According to Max Hernández “Vera Matos represents a kind of historical investment, by symbolically imposing an Inca structure on writing, it cancels the Spanish domination, one of the main instruments of colonial power.”
He has recently exhibited at the Cartier Foundation in Paris, at the Lima Museum of Art, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen, Delfina Foundation in London, Museo del Barrio in NY, among others.
His work is part of the collection of the Lima Art Museum, The Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid, The Cartier Foundation in Paris, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, The Davidoff Foundation in Switzerland, and now, the EFG Capital Collection in Miami.