Enough of False Heroes: An Exploration of the Venezuelan Historic, Socio-Political, and Cultural Symbols

José Vivenes (Maturín, 1977) is a Venezuela-based painter. His work reconsiders the gaze given to collective references. Vivenes assumes painting as a means of communication to reflect on the complex circumstances that his country is going through. The visual fable that Vivenes presents shows a “contemporary savage” immersed in the consequences of its actions. The reality he builds works as a metaphor of a legacy — a new “social imaginary” — of the twenty-first century. One of the main symbols Vivenes dissects is Simón Bolívar (also known as the Liberator), one of the main leaders of the Venezuelan independence wars in the nineteenth century.

Vivenes explores the historic, sociopolitical, and cultural actors and their actions by impregnating aspects of instinctual human behavior with memories of found objects, belongings, and an absence of geographical context. The grotesque plays a fundamental role within his compositions, representing a “history of calumny” imbued with sarcasm, irony, and satire.

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