Santiago Yahuarcani

Santiago Yahuarcani (b. 1960) is a self-taught artist, and indigenous leader of the Uitoto people. His mother, Martha López, was a descendant of Gregorio López, the only member of the Aimeni clan (the white heron clan) who migrated from La Chorrera, now part of the Colombian Amazon, to the Ampiyacu River region, now northern Peru’s Amazon, as part of the relocation of enslaved indigenous populations to work in the rubber industry. Thus, her work addresses issues of documentation of indigenous knowledge, Amazonian ontologies, and the politics of genocide against their ancestors.

The artist has participated in the 60th Venice Art Biennale ‘Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere’, as well as the Toronto Biennial of Art, the Mercosur Biennale and was part of the Gwangju Biennale in 2023. His works are part of the collection of the Tate Gallery, Museo Reina Sofía, MASP, Kadist, Van Abbemuseum, Museo de Arte de Lima, among others.