Biography

Guido Garaycochea
Biography

Garaycochea was born in Lima, Peru in 1961. Since his earlier years he was worried about histories of past time and visited churches admiring the Baroque Sacred Sculptures and Paintings inside them, while trying to understand those images of Pain and Suffering, why people around was so worry on suffering. So, they represented by Art that issue all the time. Images of Virgin Mary crying for centuries, Jesus tortured and blooding for ever at the cross...were at that point questions he could not answer. He had a close relationship with his father grandmother who lived in Arequipa, a famous southern colonial city of Perú and used to visit often with her. He paid close attention to the stories she related about how life at the beginning of the 20th Century was, and how she grew up in a convent and obviously who guilty felt her for every thing people does all time. At that point he began to understand that reality depend from the point of view.

He studied Art and Teaching of Art at the "Escuela Nacional Superior de Bellas Artes del Perú", a very strict and conservative school of beauty Art.
Guido graduated from Art School with several awards and honors. A couple of years later, he decided to moved to Chile to have a brief break and continue studying and developing his Art. The 1980’s for Perú were a strong time because of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path); Peruvian terrorists and at the beginning of the 90’s the country was virtually in a civil war. Garaycochea decided that was a good time to immigrate for at least some time to another country.
In 1992-93 he moved to Chile and resumed his studies, and spent 12 years there. He studied History of Art, Aesthetic and Theory of Art. He also taught for more than 7 years in two important Chilean Universities. ( Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educacion ) At the same time he had more than fifteen Solo Art Shows and more group Art Exhibitions in countries such as: Germany, Spain, Austria, Perú and Chile.

What he initially wanted to do with his paintings was to depict his historical Peruvian and South American legacy. He wanted to reveal the greatness of the pre-Colombian cultures and the incredible philosophy of life they had. He studied the funeral masks of the Chimú people, but these masks showed more about human beings in general rather than about the Chimú. Those masks and the use of some materials, like gold, showed him a new face of the human being that seduced him: "the duality of the being, that interior turmoil which exists permanently inside humanity".

Duality has been the principal theme of his work. He is trying to explore inside the depths of the human being, particularly inside himself, expressing through his visual work, his own contradictions, his own dual feelings, and also his deepest human characteristics.
When he paints, he is thinking of visual spaces, interior landscapes where freedom is given in amounts he allows to flow. He tries to invite the spectator to discover, with his use of gold, the duality of the human being that has been present throughout history. He also invites the viewer to discover fragments caused by permanent fractures in the being and to search for a balance, which obviously, will never be found.

Garaycochea moved to the United States in the Fall of 2003, to become an International Artist in Resident at The Griffis Art Center in New London, CT and later in 2005 at I-Park in East Haddam, CT. While living in New London, he developed his Art involved with the North Easter landscape. He also taught at Mitchell College and the Mystic Art Center and became an active member of many area and statewide art organizations and institutions. In the summer of 2006, Guido moved his studio to New York City, where he used to live before going back to Stonington Connecticut late 2007.

Guido and his patner Jose runs a succesful Gallery of Art nemed Latins in the Borough.

Garaycochea actually teach at Mitchell College and UCCON , sharing his time with his creative procces of painting!