Big Art: Murals by Peruko Ccopacatty - Inside Art With Michael Rose

Big Art: Murals by Peruko Ccopacatty - Inside Art With Michael Rose

 

Many artists dream of creating pieces that have a big impact. Local painter and sculptor Peruko Ccopacatty has crafted many pieces that make a mark in form and size. On view through February 26, 2025, WaterFire Arts Center is hosting a special show of impressive murals and metal sculptures by Ccopacatty. An artist with a monumental vision, Ccopacatty has been making his art in the state for over 40 years. His exhibition showcases his sensibility for scale and mark making and offers a new generation of viewers the opportunity to learn about his work.

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An Andean artist, Ccopacatty received his degree from the National School of Fine Arts in Lima, Peru in 1976. While there, he earned the Gold Medal in Sculpture. Ccopacatty emigrated to the United States in 1981 and has lived and worked in West Kingston, Rhode Island ever since. He has shown his work in dozens of venues over his long and storied career including exhibitions locally at RISD and the Newport Art Museum as well as in institutions like the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America, the Art Institute of San Francisco, the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Muscarell Museum of Art, and more. In 1994, he was presented with the Key to the City of Providence.

 

 

The exhibition at WaterFire, titled PACHA: Ancestral Evolutions, shows a series of seven murals that have never been seen together before. They cover topics ranging from colonization, to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, to the September 11th attacks, while centering the human experience. Asked what it means to him to share this body of work in the space, the artist points to the repetitions of themes throughout history, saying, "It's a phenomenal situation to show these murals at WaterFire. By painting these 7 murals I released the pain in my soul. I remember the repetition of history in these murals of Chernobyl; 9/11; Valdez oil spill; and the theme of genocide entitled ‘Invasion’, things still happening in different forms today."

 

 

The murals on view are impressively scaled and are installed on wires away from the walls so that they sway gently as guests pass by them, making for a kind of passive interaction that is unusual in highly controlled exhibition spaces. Covering challenging subject matter, the human form is central to the compositions and Ccopacatty renders his figures in a way that is grand, expressive, and muscular. The pieces in the show exemplify the artists’ experience creating public artworks in various settings around the country and locally. He has collaborated with organizations like The Avenue Concept multiple times to put art with meaning in public spaces.

 

 

The exhibition’s title PACHA, comes from Aymara and Quechua cosmology and references the concept of time and space being an interconnected whole. Considering how he hopes his works in the show are received, the artist adds to that meaning, answering, "I want people to feel the drama of daily world events and to see an artist's inspiration coming from human tragedy.”

 

 

Ccopacatty’s murals are almost cinematic in their scope. Visitors have to look up to appreciate them. They are immersive and thought-provoking. Alongside these pieces, a collection of larger-than-life-sized metal sculptures of human forms and an accompanying maquette is also on display. These add depth and interest to the solo show and allow visitors to see a different skillset of the muralist, one that requires a torch rather than a brush.

 

 

Of this artist’s work, WaterFire Founder and Artistic Director Barnaby Evans says, “Ccopacatty’s stunning, powerful murals demand that we reexamine the complex history of cultural impacts, including the clashes of civilizations and the devastating consequences of ecocide on the natural world. Spanning nearly 500 years of struggle and, from his monumental 97-foot mural ‘Invasion’ to the environmental destruction of the ‘Exxon Valdez’ disaster, Ccopacatty’s work offers a profound and timely call to action.”

 

 

The show is one half of a two-part exhibition and is accompanied by Latin American Posters by Gráfica Latina and La Linterna, which will be on view in WaterFire’s gallery from February 13 - March 23. Ccopacatty’s showcase is a strong start for this exhibition series and its historical focus, both in subject matter and in the documentation of one artist’s lengthy career, is a strong point. An artist who has shaped large-scale narrative works for decades in the state, Ccopacatty is receiving well-deserved recognition and celebration in his exhibition at WaterFire.

 

PACHA: Ancestral Evolutions, featuring murals and sculpture by Peruko Ccopacatty, is on view through February 26 at the WaterFire Arts Center at 475 Valley Street. 

The show is open Wednesdays - Sundays from 10-5 pm and is open late on Thursdays until 9 pm.

Learn more about Peruko Ccopacatty at www.ccopacatty.com.