(b. Bolivia, 1951).
Valcárcel's hyper-realist, sharply critical works have broken new ground in Bolivian art. His pieces that denounce the country's military dictatorships approximate the German styles of Darmstadt and Düsseldorf, such as the 1981 Artichoke Field. Trained as an architect, Valcárcel combines intense color with superior draftsmanship to parody middle-class complacency and question the symbiotic relationships between an individual and his environment. His spaces often form a trompe l'oeil effect, as in the Houses-faces series. His mixed-media painting Bolívar (1994) uses all of these techniques to question the many faces of the nation's hero. Sources:
Edward J. Sullivan, ed. Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century. London: Phaidon Press, 1996. pg. 246.
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