Guayaquil Biennale to receive 100 paintings - El Universo Newspaper
17-Abril-2010

The second edition of Guayaquil’s Álvaro Noboa Biennale of Painting is set to go. The works to be exhibited during the pictorial event have been chosen – the winning works and the Honorable Mentions – although details of these will not be revealed until the day of the event’s inauguration, scheduled for next April 28.

It is known that of the 387 selected paintings, 64 were chosen for exhibition in the Luis A. Noboa Naranjo Museum, located in the Condors Insurance Building (P. Icaza and Córdova).

Besides the paintings chosen for the event, other works will also be incorporated, making a total of nearly 100 paintings that will be on display, specified Pablo Martínez Rojas, the museum’s Director.

He states that they received paintings from artist of 25 countries, like Cuba, the United States, Italy, Turkey, Panama, Honduras, France, Argentina, Israel and Kosovo. Among the 64 paintings selected are the winners, who will receive $20,000 for first place, $10,000 for second place, and $5,000 for third place.

Likewise, five Honorable Mentions will be bestowed by the jury, which is made up of Joseph Roberts, from the United States, Alejandra Rosetti, from Argentina, and Theo Constante, Larissa Marangoni and Mariela Garcia from Ecuador.

Marangoni indicates that the jury made their selection of the works on the basis of the quality of the painting, “that is to say, for its mode of execution.”

“The best is that really the subject matter is oriented within the contemporary, within a search, in which the artists are also inspired and see beyond the merely accidental,” she explained.
Marangoni states that it is evident that the various institutions are not restricted to only one technique or color preference, or within a form or combination, “but rather that artists can now draw on other methods, such as sculpture, installations”, she added.

Marangoni points out that the works selected “are exquisite” and she recommends that each one should have its particular space and voice in order for viewers to become immersed in the subject matter offered in each salon.

“It is important to establish painting competitions, as the formal basis of why a person should be an artist is constantly being eroded. I think we should manage for young people to have a strong technical basis, that they know what a painting, or sculpture, is, so that later they are sure of what they want to do”, indicated Marangoni.

Garcia, on the other hand, prefers not to give details of the concepts by which she contributed to the selection of paintings. “I don’t even like to see the names of the painters of the works, nor where they are from, but rather to simply select a good painting. A good painting makes it into a salon; what is not, doesn’t. The technique used doesn’t matter, nor the subject matter”, she stated.

At the same time, Constante is satisfied in seeing that space has been dedicated to the display of art. “Really, there should be a common space with an objective idea that is identified with esthetic principals.”


Published by El Universo Newspaper of Ecuador, 17 April 2010