Arturo Kameya Born 1984, Lima (PE)
Lives and works in Amsterdam (NL)

Arturo Kameya's work explores the narratives and myths that shape differing socio-political histories of Peru. His works across a range of mediums, including acrylic, plaster, film, and printmaking. His multimedia pieces are often brought together in large-scale installations that trace connections between seemingly unrelated historical events through layered visual and cultural languages developed over time. More recent projects focus on the textures of urban environments and the contradictions inherent in knowing a place intimately. In recent years, his practice has gained increasing recognition for its incisive portrayals of Peru, capturing both the unsettling and deeply familiar dimensions of everyday life.

"Childhood memories, scenes from Lima’s suburbs where the artist grew up in the 1990s, family traditions and popular culture often form the point of departure of Arturo’s artworks. These sources lead to intriguing groups of related, finely detailed paintings, installations and, occasionally, videos. [...] Arturo’s work feels both familiar and unknown at the same time. Yet all elements seem to relate. They find each other in a carefully composed idiom constructed by gentle looking forms and by soft pastel and grayish, slightly muted, colors. [...] Arturo’s artworks may looklike mementos or witnesses from a bygone era, which addssomething bittersweet, in between nostalgia, a painful sentimentand a celebration of the past."
- excerpt from Turning history downside up by Madelon van Schie, Who can afford to feed more ghosts, 2021

Arturo Kameya (b. 1984 in Lima, PE) attended the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Peru in Lima (PE) and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (NL) from 2019 through 2021. He is the winner of the Wolvecampprijs 2024.

Solo exhibitions include: The moon wanted to be the sun, but it was too late to change, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Opaque Spirits, Marres, Maastricht (NL); Los Ovnis, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); En esa pulga se mezcla nuestra sangre / In that flea, our blood mixes, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); Drylands, Dordrechts Museum, Dordrecht (NL); Grandma’s Cooking Recipes, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Depósito de Sombras, Alliance Française, Lima (PE); Allá en el Caserío, Acá en el Matorral (with Claudia Martínez Garay) Ginsberg Galeria, Lima (PE); Ghosts Don’t Care if You Believe in Them, Hotel Maria Kapel, Hoorn (NL); Ghost Stories, Alliance Française, Lima (PE); Ciencia Ficción, Wu Gallery, Lima (PE); Land at the End of the Sea (with Claudia Martínez Garay), Galería del Centro Cultural Británico de San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima (PE).

Selected group exhibitions: La ceniza ya no recuerda qué causó el incendio. / The ash no longer remembers what caused the fire., in collaboration with Claudia Martínez Garay, 59th Carnegie International: If the word we, Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PE (US); Your Ears Later Will Know to Listen, Nottingham Contemporary (UK); Toward the Celestial, curated by Alex Gartenfeld; Gean Moreno and Stephanie Seidel, ICA, Miami, FL (US); Prospect.6: The Future Is Present, The Harbinger Is Home, New Orleans, LA (US) in 2024; Memory is an Editing Station, 22nd BiennialSesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (BR) in 2023; We, on the Rising Wave, Busan Biennale (SK) in 2022 and at Soft Water Hard Stone, the fifth New Museum Triennial, New York, NY (US) in 2021.

Kameya's work is part of numerous collections including ABN AMRO Collection, Amsterdam (NL); AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, New York, NY (US); ING Collection (NL); Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Miami, FL (US); LAM Museum, Lisse (NL); Museo de Arte de Lima (PE) and Saastamoinen Foundation, Helsinki (FI).