The Enchanting World of Fito Espinosa

Appreciating a contemporary Peruvian artist

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa. Caption: almas gemelas — soulmates.

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A few nights ago, out for a walk, my partner and I came upon an art gallery that we hadn’t noticed before. The featured artist was Fito Espinosa. My partner, who’s also a painter, recognized his name. We stepped inside, and I was immediately charmed by Espinosa’s dreamy, imaginative work.

Admission was free, so we supported the artist and the gallery by purchasing a journal with one of Espinosa’s paintings on the cover.

While my photos don’t capture the best level of detail, I hope they’re still worth sharing.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa. Caption: las niñas son de sus sueños — girls are of their dreams.

Born in Lima in 1970, Fito Espinosa is a Peruvian painter, illustrator, plastic artist, and art teacher. His name doesn’t appear on lists of Peru’s Greatest Painters, but I hope that someday it will. His work is wonderful.

A few central themes in Espinosa’s work include:

• Descriptive text within the frame
• Blending of the human form with elements of nature (e.g. hair made of flowers)
• Loving embraces
• Human heads transformed or open to reveal the subject’s inner life
• Closed eyes to suggest that the viewer is peering into the subject’s imagination

Here are two of Espinosa’s many pieces that depict open, transformed heads. The (translated) text on the first image says: all the birds that were in your soul came to me.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa. Caption: el extraño juego de los laberintos — the strange game of the mazes.

Espinosa often presents two individuals physically and spiritually connected in unique ways.

Here, the human pair is back to back, eyes closed. The birds stand on open cage doors, linked by two flowers. The caption reads: in spite of everything, love finds ways.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

Here’s another, captioned: the shared vision.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

Most of Espinosa’s eyes are closed. When they’re open, they’re often positioned away from the head to present a reimagined sense of vision.

Here, the woman “sees with her heart”. The eyes on her face are both closed and covered, while the eye within her heart is open.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa. Caption: el hombre que usaba la razón, la mujer que veía con el corazón — the man who used reason, the woman who saw with her heart.

And again, a woman seeing with the heart — this time, seeing in this way seems to enable her to gaze into the cosmos.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

I’ll conclude with two of my favorites.

First, natural portal: a stairway between heaven and earth, through the womb.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

And finally, the hunter of ideas.

Author’s photo. Art by Fito Espinosa.

I hope that through these grainy photos, enough of the artist’s creativity and style shone through to make this presentation worth your while.

Here are links to Espinosa’s website and Instagram.

This article draws inspiration from Yuri Minamide, who writes many brilliant interpretive pieces on art and culture, like this one:

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