The exhibition “The search for a Republic” by Gonzalo García Callegari brings together more than 40 paintings, drawings and collages from the series “Peruanismos”, a collection begun in 2009 by the artist.

The anthropologist and historian Ramón Mujica Pinilla points out that “Peruanismos” of García Callegari “reflect the “uses and customs” of Peruvian national politics, but with a jocular visual vocabulary that questions the imaginary Peruvian nationalist”.  His paintings, he adds, function as narrative arguments, placing the work of the artist halfway between political caricature and graphic comic stories by exploring “the deep fissures that impede the realisation of the libertarian ideology of the emancipatory deed”.

Mujica adds that “in synthesis, the paintings of García Callegari take the pulse of our pre-modern republic and warn us that in the “imagined community” of our Nation there are no gaps separating its historical past from the present, since the rupture and the change to the future will only come about as a sudden inner illumination within our own conscience”.

Gonzalo García Callegari (Lima, 1971) studied painting at the Faculty of Art of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú where he also studied Psychology, Anthropology and Philosophy. He is the creator and promoter of the artistic collective Fixed Project Lima since 2019.  He has been a member of the second edition of the Accelerator Programme for Latin American Artists (PAAL), organised by BOOM Art Community, in Madrid, in 2024.

García develops concepts such as identity, power, memory and politics, with a strong dose of irony.  He has had around twenty solo exhibitions in Peru and Spain and has participated in many residencies, winning several awards in both countries. His work, which forms part of public and private collections, has been shown in group exhibitions and art fairs in Peru, Spain, Portugal, the United States, Uruguay and Macedonia.   He lives between Lima and Madrid.