Santiago Yahuarcani

Santiago Yahuarcani is a self-taught painter and sculptor and leader of the Uitoto and Bora villages on the Ampiyacú River. His life has been dedicated to the development of art and storytelling as a form of expression. Santiago Yahuarcani and his partner, Nereyda López, are based in Pebas and are members of the last family from the Aimen+ (white heron clan). They work entirely with materials they have collected from nature in the Amazon, which provide a refuge for millennia-old knowledge.

They have both exhibited in Peru as well as China, England, the USA and France. Their most important exhibitions include: “Aimen+” (Museo Amazónico de Iquitos, 2010), “El clan de la garza blanca” (Centro Cultural El Olivar, San Isidro, Lima, 2018), “El Lugar de los Espíritus” (ICPNA Iquitos, 2021) and “Los ríos pueden existir sin aguas pero no sin orillas” (MAC, Lima, 2022). Their sculptures depict myriad totemic beings displayed as installations.