Cuenca artist Alberto Soriano presents a new exhibition at the IdiomART Gallery

Artist Alberto Soriano at his easel.

By Jeremiah Reardon

A new exhibition by Peruvian artist Alberto Soriano, El Encanto de la Imaginacion y El Color, opens Wednesday, March 13, at 6 p.m. at the idiomArt Gallery and Community Center, Mariscal Lamar 14-25 y Estevez de Toral. The show will run for ten days. Wine and snacks will be served at the opening.

Occupying both idiomART floors of a spacious colonial building, Soriano’s startling oil paintings will appear on the ground floor. Upstairs he will exhibit his beautiful, masterful watercolors. What makes this show special are the “hidden gems,” artwork which previously have not been shown.

The precursor to this exhibit was Soriano’s month-long show at Cuenca’s Antigua Escuela Central’s second floor gallery in October. In its chapel-like setting, he hung massive canvases that caught one’s attention with their bold colors and, always, playfulness. Latin American city and landscapes provided commentary and humor regarding the human condition.

Notes for that show prepared by Cuban-American artist and author Eduardo Cervino included a reference to how Maestro Soriano “shows in his art the human need to express the spiritual aspects of our existence, our ambitions to become better, to shed the serpentine skin, and grow wings, like birds, so we could fly high, where the air is pure and the light brighter. He paints these half-angels, half-demons, sometimes menacing, other times joyful, attempting like “Icarus” to evade reality just as many humans do.”

One of Alberto Soriano to be exhibited at idiomArt.

Remarks prepared by the artist for that show reveal the attitude he takes in executing his canvases. “In this exhibition, I invite you to explore a dream world where my brushes trace the limit between reality and fantasy. Each canvas represents a corner of my soul and an echo of my dreams. From the “Religious Series” you will find memories from my birthplace in Cusco, Peru, intermixed with spirituality and devotion. My brushstrokes are nostalgic windows that follow the cobblestone streets of my youth.”

On a personal note, my wife Belinda and I feel blessed to have been adopted as family by Alberto and his artist wife Maite Eusebio at whose home we celebrate birthdays and holidays. “We are foreigners here, too,” Alberto declares when inviting us over. To have this gift of acceptance and friendship has brightened our days here in Cuenca. Now, in this exhibit, feel Soriano’s warm embrace as you take in his art and acknowledge the work of a genius.