Website: www.moguya.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/moguyart
Artist Statement
My work explores political and social issues through the lens of personal experience shaped by the places I have lived and the events that have defined my life. My process is intuitive and responsive, allowing memory and heritage to guide my work.
I was born in Perú and have lived in the United States since 2002. As a child, I spent countless hours sculpting with plasticine, recreating Japanese cartoons translated into Spanish and inventing my own figurines. These early influences—Japanese animation, Renaissance art, and the visual traditions of ancient Peruvian Pre-Colombian cultures such as the Mochica, Wari, and Inca—continue to inform my practice. My maternal grandfather’s Japanese heritage further deepens this cultural dialogue within my work.
Since the pandemic, my life has changed in significant ways, including becoming a U.S. citizen two years ago. Voting in the 2024 presidential election for the first time grounded me in a new sense of belonging. This milestone inspired me to merge my Peruvian heritage with American culture, creating a new body of work that reflects my identity in the United States.
The beginning of the new series, American Huacos, consists of ceramic vessels inspired by the Mochica and Nazca traditions. In Quechua, “huaco” refers to ceramic vessels that once documented everyday life, mythology, sacred animals, leaders, rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices, war scenes etc. In my reinterpretation, these vessels serve as political, social, and personal commentary on contemporary America. Through them, I speak from the perspective of a Peruvian American citizen, bridging past and present as I navigate the complexities of identity in my adopted home. I paint their
surfaces with underglazes depicting presidents, national symbols such as the Statue of Liberty, political party logos, and the AR-15 rifle—an emblem of the tragic reality of school shootings. Alongside these, I weave iconography from Mochica culture: warriors, gods, demons, and metamorphic animals.
Through American Huacos, I seek to bridge cultures and histories, creating vessels that embody both ancestral memory and present-day realities.
American Huaco: Immigrant Punk
Ceramics, cone 4, image transfer, underglazes
13”h x 9”d
2025
$1,500