José Gamarra, an Uruguayan painter, printmaker and visual artist, has established his studio in Arcueil, in Val-de-Marne, since 1964.

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His passion for art and his desire to express his emotions were evident from his first drawings and portraits, made in 1945, which revealed his keen sense of observation and his exceptional talent for the plastic arts. Starting in 1953, Gamarra explored pre-Columbian signs and symbols in his paintings, thus heralding a new artistic period, a new pictorial language.

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In 1963, the artist moved to Paris and immersed himself in the representation of landscapes of the Amazon jungle. Through his works, he evokes a tropical universe that is both mystical and luxuriant. In these paintings, he denounces conquests and invaders, from caravels to helicopters, whose presence is obviously undesirable.

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“Two worlds face each other, on the one hand, nature where the white horse jumps, a symbol of freedom, on the other hand, the different powers that form the structure of the world.” Garance Cappatti, about the work of Gamarra

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Gamarra's works have been exhibited in more than sixty solo exhibitions and have integrated the largest private and public collections around the world. These include MoMA in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires.