The Eyes of Violeta

Inauguration Wednesday, 4th-7:30pm;
featuring paintings on silk by Violeta Marroquín at the Antigua Center,
7a calle poniente #11, La Antigua Guatemala

Violeta Marroquín, born in 1976 in Guatemala City, started painting at an early age. As a child she was educated in the arts, but at the university level she chose to study communications. In November 2002, Violeta moved to Finland, studied Swedish and Finnish and started to paint more and more. There she discovered the beauty of painting on silk—and its appeal to art lovers. After just two years, she was ready for her first exhibition, at which she made the first sales of her career—though selling art had never been her intention when she was in Guatemala.

After 11 international expositions, Violeta and her husband have returned to Guatemala, settling in Monterrico. They opened a hotel and, naturally, adorned it with Violeta’s art. Hanging on exterior room walls, her works can be enjoyed by guests and casual visitors alike.

Now her work comes to La Antigua, in her first exposition in Guatemala, The Eyes of Violeta—a subtle reference to Violeta’s near blindness—opens February 4 at the Antigua Center.

Violeta has other dreams about how to combine her art and the hotel business in Monterrico, both for tourists and the young people of the town and surrounding villages. “For me as a painter, this is an inspiring place, and I think many other painters can discover the same in this tranquil environment,” she says.

Photographs by Nicholas Hellmuth, Eduardo Sacayón, and Jaime Leonardo, courtesy of FLAAR Mesoamérica, www.FineArtGicleePrinters.org