Samy Benmayor

Part of the 80’s Generation—a group of Chilean Neo-Expressionists reacting against the government-promoted documentary art of the 1970s—Samy Benmayor specializes in colorful paintings that combine childlike figuration and abstraction. The artist collages references from high and low culture: Renaissance and Pop art, Massaccio and Picasso, and American cartoons such as Archie, Superman, and Woody Woodpecker. He often combines the disparate images to create a print that is then overlaid with gestural strokes of acrylic, ink, or watercolor. Characterized by a mischievous humor, his work approaches even serious subjects with a playful subjectivity.

Benmayor has had solo exhibitions at Santiago’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Marlborough Gallery in New York, Galería A.M.S. Marlborough in Santiago, and Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago. His work has been shown extensively in Latin America including group exhibitions at the Valdivia’s Museo de Arte Moderno in Argentina, Mexico City’s Museo de Arte Moderno, and Lima’s Museo de Bellas Artes. He is a recipient of fellowships from the U.S. Information Agency and Fund for Artists Colonies and the Djerassi Foundation, Woodside, California.