Exhibits & Events

Abstract Painting | Solo Exhibition
Celebrating 40 years of Exhibitions (1983-2023)
Curated by Gloria Garafulich-Grabois
With nominal support of the Embassy of Chile to the United States and the Consulate General of Chile in New York
Invited Artist: Ricardo Guajardo-Romero

Muse Gallery Philadelphia
First Friday: April 7, 5- 8 pm
Artist Reception: Sunday April 16, 1- 4 pm
Closing Reception: Sunday April 30, 2- 4 pm, with an Artist Talk, and a Video Presentation
www.musegalleryphiladelphia.com | @musegalleryphila

Muse Gallery Philadelphia is proud to present Atacama—my inspiring Desert, a solo painting exhibition of the work by Chilean artist Jacqueline Unanue, inspired by the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. Some of her recent work features colorful large-scale acrylic paintings. Unanue has invited her husband Ricardo Guajardo-Romero, also an artist and designer, to create a painting for this specific exhibition.
The exhibition at Muse Gallery includes a total of approximately 20 works of the Atacama series, created during 2016-2017; as well as from the Still Atacama series, which was created during 2022-2023. Both series are inspired by her previous trips taken with her husband in 1980-1995, and subsequently in 2016 and 2018, to archeological sites especially rich in rock art, in the Atacama Desert. Her husband is originally from this Northern region of Chile.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jacqueline Unanue is a Chilean American artist of Spanish descent, who has resided in the United States since 2000. She studied design at the Universidad de Chile of Valparaíso, and received formal training in drawing, painting, art history and textile art. While a student, she became interested in the rock art found in Chile where she met world-renowned archaeologist, Hans Niemeyer, who soon became her mentor. She traveled extensively through Chile’s Atacama Desert, doing on-site rock art research. She also traveled to Spain to study the pre-historic paintings of the Altamira caves in the Basque Country, which being the home of her paternal ancestors.

In 1989, Unanue received the Critic’s Award in Visual Arts from the Valparaíso Art Critics Association in Chile. She was awarded grants sponsored by the Directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile (DIRAC) for her solo exhibits at Guayasamín Foundation in Ecuador (1997), and at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC (2000). In 2015, she received the Latin American Women in Art and Cultural Tribute recognition in New York. In 2022, she was selected by The Woodmere Annual 80Th Juried Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Since 1983, Jacqueline Unanue’s work has been numerously shown in both solo and group exhibitions around the world, specifically Chile, Spain, Finland, Ecuador, Argentina, and the United States in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, Annapolis and New York. Her work can also be found in many private and public collections in the Americas and Europe.

Artist contact: jacquelineunanue@yahoo.com  | www.jacquelineunanue.com
https://www.instagram.com/jacquelineunanueartist/ | https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.unanue

ABOUT THE INVITED ARTIST
Ricardo Guajardo- Romero is a designer and artist with studies in architecture as well. He was born in Northern Chile, and has resided in the United States since 1999. He traveled extensively through Chile’s Atacama Desert, doing on-site rock art research and photographic documentation. In Chile he received an Honor Award in the VIII International Biennial of Art, in Valparaíso, 1983. He co founded Raimi Design, a Philadelphia-based studio dedicated to textile design, exhibiting them in New York international art fairs.

ABOUT THE CURATOR
Gloria Garafulich-Grabois was born in Chile and is a citizen of the United States and Croatia. In 2018 the Government of Chile awarded her the grade of Dame of the Order of Merit Gabriela Mistral. She is President of the Gabriela Mistral Foundation, Inc. based in New York; Founder & International Director of the Chapter in Chile of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and is a member of the International Jury of the Mondial Art Academia in France.

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