Arturo Kameya: Art | Basel Miami Beach

Arturo Kameya paints constructions that incorporate referential elements and collectively represent the period in which the artist grew up. Fantasies of space exploration are projected onto the vernacular architecture of stage sets built for traditional “Chicha” band performances. “Chicha” is a subculture with its own genre of regional music and art, a source of cultural identity and national pride for Peruvians that became highly stigmatized a few decades ago. 

Comprised of acrylic and clay powder mounted on wood, each work combines elements of Peruvian popular culture. The work titled Horoscope simulates a musical shrine dedicated to St. Martín de Porres, the patron saint of social justice who is depicted taking centerstage, surrounded by speakers and subwoofers. The title of the work refers to a local record label of the same name dedicated to producing some of the most renowned bands of electrified Andean cumbia. 

This body of work integrates sci-fi shows of Kameya’s youth, such as the imported and widely popular Japanese TV shows and films that portrayed stereotypical figures based on ideas of the "oriental" and Asian culture. Moreover, traces of the iconography of the Spanish colonial tradition in Peru figure into this array of small monuments as an inherited visual language. Through the recontextualization of symbolic elements from Kameya’s memories, the artist creates a kind of living architecture of personal experiences.