ÁLVARO OYARZÚN

(Santiago, 1960)

In his practice, Álvaro Oyarzún questions the place of painting in contemporary art as well as its function with regards to the local environment. The artist’s interests converge in a single question: What role does painting play in current-day Chile? The Artists’ Lookout II (2018), Last Stop (2017), and March Arrived (2017) are like pseudo- postcards of Chilean territories— fragments that are considered commonplace, to the point that they are often invisible to their inhabitants. While the landscapes portrayed by Oyarzún contain traces of human presence, they are completely abandoned. Likewise, though based on photos, the paintings signal the recurrence of certain episodes of repression, vandalism, and neglect in Chilean history. In this sense, these modest artworks shed light on the circular aspect of time in Chile and may even be considered clichés. In the artist’s words, this makes his painting “both tragic and comical.”