Marcelo Suaznabar
Marcelo Suaznabar was born in Bolivia, in 1970,
in the mining city of Oruro, located in the mid-western part
of the country. He is the youngest of six brothers, and is the
son of Nstor Suaznbar and Ana Maria Solari. From an early age,
he had a passion for drawing, motivated by his uncle Enrique
Suaznbar, a professional photographer who lived in the same
city. Focusing solely in drawings as the main motor of his creations,
he showed a great interest in color form an early age and began
exploring watercolours, pastels, and coloured pencils. For a
long time, he focused on painting insects, animals, houses and
portraits on paper and cardboards.
Marcelo developed a great amount of his work in
his birthplace, the city of Oruro. Oruro posses a mystical energy
in its surroundings and has a strong folkloric tradition; its
carnival was declared by UNESCO as Oral and Intangible Patrimony
of Humanity. The cultural richness of the city's manifestations
contributes to creators, granting the artist enough incentive
to cultivate his work.
In 1988, Marcelo traveled with his father and
Marco, his brother, to the colonial city of Potos, located south
in the country, where they spent days visiting churches and
museums, admiring the immense cultural richness expressed in
the architecture and the ample collections of colonial paintings.
The House of Coins and Convent of Saint Teresa were the incentives
that led the artist to recreate sacred scenes, and with the
artwork Coronation of the Virgin (1988), Marcelo began his series
Sacred Art. During this period, Marcelo was invited to participate
in a collective exhibit at the French Alliance and the Cultural
House (Centro Cultural) by his fine arts professor, Maritza
Ajhuacho. Using the same series, he made an individual exhibit
in Spain's House (Casa de Espaa), in the city of La Paz, where
he received in 1991 an honorable mention for his work Judgment's
Cart in contest Spain 91.
In 1992, Marcelo traveled to Chile. It was in
Santiago where he attended and completed a four-month course
at the Art School of the Extension Center at the Catholic University
under the tutelage of professor Roberto Farriol. In 1993 he
was selected for the exhibit Four Young Artists at the art gallery
of the BHN Foundation in the city of La Paz.
In 1999, he was invited to participate in the
International Exhibit II Biennale of Visual Arts of the Mercosur
in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The theme of ecological damage at global
level motivated him to make a series of artworks dedicated to
life and nature. The series titled Living Nature, Still Life
was shown a year later at the National Art Museum in the city
of La Paz.
In October of the year 2000, Marcelo married Milenka
Azuga in the city of Oruro. Today Marcelo lives in Canada and
is the father of two children, Hans and Valeria. In this new
stage, Marcelo emphasizes themes related to nature, maternity
and the passing of time in his work. He continues to progress
forward using a surreal and symbolic language, an aesthetic
language that covers all of the work. In the three series, Apocalyptic,
Angels, and Magical Plateaus, Marcelo finds his own unique language.
Marcelo's sets his imagination free in his work,
exploring and examining the elements of unconsciousness. This
including, universal and common themes that preoccupy human
beings: passing of time, death, nature, sexuality, beauty, temptations,
fear, and world religions. These themes are evident in each
of Marcelo's paintings.
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