Oswaldo Vigas——Reality is What I Imagine
Hall 7,8, 2F, Guangdong Museum of Art ( Baietan )
2026-08-15——
2026-11-22
Date: August 15--November 22, 2026
Venue: Hall 7,8, 2F, Guangdong Museum of Art ( Baietan )
Organizer: Guangdong Museum of Art
Co-organizer: Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery
Supported by: Oswaldo Vigas Foundation
Producer: Wang Shaoqiang
Co-producer: Catherine Kwai
Curators: Jiang Jun/Gabriela Rangel
Introduction
South America is a continent shaped by the convergence of indigenous civilizations, European colonial culture, the legacy of African slavery, and the imprints of Asian migration. This multiplicity has long been internalized as the region’s deep-seated cultural DNA. Oswaldo Vigas was one of the most prominent postwar Latin American artists, and a strong artistic voice that bridged the postwar avant-garde art scenes between Venezuela and Paris; his work was profoundly rooted in the syncretic traditions of Latin America while drawing inspirations from European modernist currents.
A physician-turned-artist, Vigas found his artistic voice early on through in-depth studies of the cultural heritage of his country while also actively involved in modern art development both locally and internationally. His idea of modern art was rooted in an amphibian principle, straddling between water and land, the voyage to Europe and the grounding histories of the Americas. The artist moved freely between figuration and abstraction, the modern and prehistory, actively channeling the telluric forces and ancestral memories of his homeland.
This exhibition unfolds chronologically across four main periods of Vigas’s career spanning seven decades, each attests to the audacity of his creative vision, inviting a deeper inquiry into the singular narrative of modernism and its claims to universality, and how the influences were absorbed, adapted, translated by artists from different cultural backgrounds, and eventually were given new life to their own cultural traditions.
Selected Works
Infant Witch
Oil on canvas
100 x 57 cm
1951
Mural Project in Orange
Oil on paper fixed on masonite
67 x 123 cm
1953
American Object in Three Blocks
Chinese ink on cardstock fixed on masonite
64.5 x 99.5 cm
1956
Inciters
Oil on canvas
180 x 150cm
1972
Ancestral
Oil on canvas
195 x 133 cm
1976
Genesis
Oil on canvas
200 x 160 cm x 2
1980
Jugglers
Oil on canvas
230 x 200 cm
1995
Knightly II
Oil on canvas
204 x 123 cm
1995
About Artist
Oswaldo VigasOswaldo Vigas stands among the most prominent figures in Latin American modern art. A physician turned artist, he was deeply involved in the avant-garde art scenes in both South America and Paris, where he played a pivotal role in fostering dynamic exchange between the two continents. Celebrated for his boundary-breaking and ever-evolving style, he wove pre-Columbian heritage and iconographies into his distinctive visual expressions, creating a body of work that resists easy categorization and defines Latin American modern art on its own term. His works are collected by museums and institutions worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Venezuela, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Peru, the Museum of Modern Art in Columbia, the Anger Museum of Fine Arts in France, as well as the Art Museum of the Americas and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in the United States.
Opening hours: every Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 17: 00 (admission is closed at 16: 30 and clearance is started at 16:45).
Closed on Mondays (except legal holidays and special circumstances).
Baietan Area: No. 19, Baietan South Road, Liwan District,Guangzhou P.C. 510170 | Front Desk Phone：020-88902999，020-88902888
Ersha Island: No. 38 Yanyu Road, Ersha Island, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou P.C. 510105 | Front Desk Phone：020-87351468
Closed on Mondays (except legal holidays and special circumstances).
Baietan Area: No. 19, Baietan South Road, Liwan District,Guangzhou P.C. 510170 | Front Desk Phone：020-88902999，020-88902888
Ersha Island: No. 38 Yanyu Road, Ersha Island, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou P.C. 510105 | Front Desk Phone：020-87351468