Magaly Sánchez Bustamante is a painter and plastic artist who was born in Lima, Peru, on May 3, 1969.
In 1987 she entered the Faculty of Art at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, specializing in painting. During her formative years, the work she did was visually linked to Expressionism. Drawing of the human figure was one of the courses in which she stood out the most (also artistic composition). Her university years were framed between the first government of President Alan García (1985-1990) and the serious political situation and terrorism. In 1992, the year of one of the biggest terrorist attacks (Calle Tarata), Magaly left the university, without finishing her degree. However, the following year she dedicated herself to painting and the following year she summoned a Peruvian art critic who invited her to hold her first personal exhibition. In 1995 Magaly Sánchez began her artistic work as a soloist with her first individual exhibition at the Parafernalia Art Gallery located in the district of Surquillo, Lima, Peru.
In 1999 she entered into a contract with Agora Gallery New York following her first solo exhibition. And starting that year, she makes annual trips to Manhattan, the bustling centre of the Big Apple, during Lima's summer months to take part in the gallery's scheduled displays.
Salón de Belleza, (Beauty Salon), a solo show by Magaly Sánchez, took place at Room 770 of the Ricardo Palma Cultural Centre in the Miraflores neighbourhood in 2012. In this exhibition, Magaly recreated a typical beauty parlour in Room 770 to inspire discussion about what is seen beautiful. With the intention of attracting the viewer's attention and placing them in a setting where the subjective and conventional are placed into question, the mirror image of these halls was depicted through the works of art that are on display, between the seats and the paintings. Installations and paintings with geometric, op art, and surrealist themes that reference Vasarely, Magritte, and Stella were included in the exhibition.
Magaly Sánchez's paintings are found between the struggle of both theory and practice. To search for beauty, she used the theory of the Renaissance, based on canons of the human body and nature, based on geometric studies, and transported it to contemporary art through the visual language of Pop Art and Op Art. To search for beauty there are two paths: that of eternal, ideal beauty, and that of ephemeral, earthly beauty. Sánchez unites them both in her works. On the one hand, there are the geometric shapes of the canvases and elements that give strength and energy to the compositions, in addition to the vigorous and powerful colors of the backgrounds, that give us the sensation of stability, balance and eternity through time and space . On the other hand, details of iconic paintings of the Italian Quattrocento are borrowed and placed in these backgrounds, beautiful female figures and delicate flowers, symbols of ephemeral beauty. Magaly's research on pictorial possibilities using geometric theory to find beauty has materialized in the works in this exhibition.
