ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Gary Nader Art Centre presents Oswaldo Guayasamín: Important Works, an exhibition bringing together paintings and a print by the Ecuadorian artist (1919–1999). On view from November 20, 2026, through March 31, 2027, the presentation offers a concentrated encounter with a practice that confronted violence and injustice while insisting on the possibility of hope.
Guayasamín made the human condition the subject of a lifelong inquiry. Born in Quito, he traveled across Latin America, where the lives and histories of Indigenous, Black and mestizo communities informed his early series Huacayñán. His later work addressed the brutality of the twentieth century through figures whose expressive force asks viewers to recognize suffering and the dignity of those who endure it.
Dated works in the selection extend from 1970 to 1993, bringing his enduring concerns into conversation across more than two decades. Manos de la Esperanza (1970) introduces hope into a composition of striking emotional tension. In Madre y niño en fondo azul (1990), the close embrace of mother and child turns attention toward tenderness and the bonds that sustain us. The subject connects with his later body of paintings known as La Ternura, inspired by his mother and dedicated to mothers around the world.
A portrait of Rigoberta Menchú, represented in the exhibition by a print, introduces a distinct historical presence. The Guatemalan Indigenous rights advocate received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. Her image connects Guayasamín’s humanist vision to a life dedicated to social justice.
Presented together, these works reveal how Guayasamín’s condemnation of suffering remained inseparable from his attention to dignity, tenderness and hope. Important Works invites visitors to experience that vision at close range, through an intimate selection that gives space to the emotional force of each image.
