Vásquez de la Horra was born in 1967 in Chile and lived through Pinochet’s repressive dictatorial regime, eventually fleeing in the 1990s to Germany. Through her work—engaging themes of mortality, trauma, healing, and liberation—Vásquez de la Horra reckons with the political violence and persecution she witnessed while defying stereotypes and expectations imposed upon artists from Latin America and the Global South. Central to her work is an interest in the body’s connections to plant life, animals, and landscapes. Particularly important are the artist’s depictions of women, often rendered as surrealistic topographies, the body’s contours forming mountain ranges and horizon lines. Through a visual language steeped in her own family history and grounded in Indigenous spiritual practices and mythologies, Vásquez de la Horra reimagines the world, deconstructing taboos and unearthing submerged narratives to reconcile with the ongoing effects of colonialism.

Organized by the Denver Art Museum, after which it traveled to Chile and Argentina before coming to ICA LA, the exhibition and its related catalogue chronicle Vásquez de la Horra’s extensive explorations of the body, landscape, gender and sexuality, ritual and myth, and celebrate the artist’s significant contributions to the field.