Prada Gallery is the newest space for Contemporary
and local artists in Washington, D.C.
Among Other Things
Painter, sketcher, engraver, ceramist, muralist tapestry expert, sculptor and architect.
Because of the long list of exhibitions and various eloquent languages used by Guillermo Trujillo, the importance of this figure in Panama's Fine Arts is clear.
One of the initiators of Panama's modern movement in paintings during the fifties, his extensive work is developed in successive phases in which his message becomes more complex and his composition more elaborate in a constant process of maturity and evolution which lasts, without interruption, until today, always faithful, however, to his aesthetic vision in which the two elements of a constant research are combined in this artist: Nature and Man, within an all-embracing national and universal vision.
He started out with watercolors descriptively representing Panama's landscape, gradually drifting toward a modern style and comes to incorporate the human figure in abstractions and stylizations creating visions now critic or ironic of society, now Man as Nature's brother. He symbolizes this Man in his ideal valuation or even, transformed by rituals or myths incorporated to telluric mysteries. In his work there is a gradual union of autochthonous elements, thanks to the shapes and textures of indigenous cultures which even today are part of his compositions. In this massive production, the presence of his country's landscape has never been abandoned although he has varied his interpretation, indicating the evolution phases of his work.
Endowed with a high dose of stamina, daily, constant, almost obsessive dedication of this artist for his work, takes him to a monumental production whose attempt at synthesis is made naive and where it is present,: Panama's urban characters, pre-Hispanic myths, vegetable world in its abundance of novel visions. Always in vital messages representing a thematic ideology focused on visions of freedom, delight, in a message that life is a daily celebration of movement, color, lights.
His work combines the nervous uneasiness of his human research with the constant movement of his compositions technically depicted through an intricate lineal mesh or by pointillism which serves as a background for this unfolding of characters and elements of Nature. His chromatic values always contrasting and strong translate the tropical feeling of Nature even though his many phases have been earmarked by various predominant chromatic tonalities. Thus today, the abundance of bright and luminous greens and blues of his 2000 phase where his famous "nuchos" are installed - vertical, stylized forms combining human kind with the symbolism of indigenous batons indicating power over the forces of nature - is succeeded by a phase of clear colors where white and pastel colors are predominant in an artist whose surprising creativity has been the reason why he has exercised influence on a generation of artists - through his extensive years of teaching because of his poignant and strong language.
Dr. Angela de Picardi
Prada Gallery is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 11:00 am - 6:00pm , and Mondays by appointment only. It is located in the heart of Georgetown in Washington DC, at 1030 Wisconsin Ave., NW .