An Amazonian Journey
Brus Rubio Churay is a Bora-Murui artist from Pucaurquillo, Loreto, Peru. His art plays upon a magical realism that is in constant dialogue between both of his ancestral lineages; a family environment that acts as his backdrop for a traditional and cosmopolitan worldview where his art can ‘transcend in time’ the vision of his ancestors.
Community life is part of his culture, where family relationships and the oral transmission of traditions and legends are passed down from generation to generation. These codes are evident in his art and are of vital importance in the dissemination of his traditions and worldview, from the mythological to the quotidian. Having been raised by his Murui father (an indigenous activist) and Bora mother, his mixed bloodline finds its harmony through his art, and is for Rubio “his creative weapon.”
In this exhibition the artist presents a series of drawings and paintings that impress upon his ancestral traditions and their mythological parallels such as “Viaje Amazónico” and “Danza de los Seres del Agua.”
Biography | Brus Rubio Churay
Brus Rubio Churay (b.1983), is of Murui and Bora descent from the community of Pucaurquillo, in the Ampiyacu river basin, Loreto in the Peruvian Amazon. Early on, as his father's assistant, his connection with art began in the preparation of dyes for the paintings he sold to tourists. At the age of 13 Brus participated in the National Contest of Drawing and Peasant Painting, organized by various institutions and the Radio La Voz de la Selva. At the same time he became interested in the wisdom of his homeland and its traditions. In 2002 he met the anthropologist Jorge Gashé where he discovered his passion for painting as a way of expressing the mythology, history and culture of the Murui and began to paint on llanchama (tree bark) with natural dyes. Gashé, as a promoter, made possible the group exhibition of indigenous painting "Birth of an art Huitoto - Bora" (2005), held at the gallery of the Banco Continental in Iquitos. Later and thanks to the motivation of filmmaker Renzo Zanelli, Brus built a workshop house on the banks of the Ampiyacu River (2009) and taught painting classes to children of the village, in order to rescue the traditional knowledge of his community. He organized the first "Youth crusade meeting on health, identity and revaluation of knowledge of healing knowledge".
Through his amalgamation of work, Brus Rubio has become one of the most important contemporary Amazonian indigenous artists of his generation. He has exhibited his works at the University of Ricardo Palma, Peru (2010), the international collective exhibition Mira in Brazil (2013), the 49th Smithsonian Folk Traditions Festival, ArtLima (2016) in Washington D.C., the New Skins of the Amazons in Havana, Cuba (2016), amongst others and is on permanent collection at the Museo de arte de lima. He has participated in international collective shows in France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Zurich, Argentina, USA, China, Brazil, and England. He was the Second Place Winner in the XIV National Competition ‘Passport for an Artist’ organized by the Alliance Française and the French Embassy in Lima,Peru 2011 where he exhibited in the Edifor de Jean Briance gallery in Paris.
Since 2017 he has been director of the Selva Invisible Gallery as part of the Fugaz project at the Monumental Callao until 2020. He is currently director of the project of the house of wisdom in the community of Pucaurquillo.
A special thanks to Estefanía Ortiz Morillo (director of Espacio Cultural Cordillera), for her curatorial participation.
