POSTCARDS: BETWEEN MARTÍN CHAMBI’S MEMORY AND TODAY´S VISIONS

Galería Gato presents Postales (Postcards), its third curatorial project since its founding in December 2024. Until September 12, the gallery’s space—located in Lima’s historic Plaza Bolognesi—will host a group exhibition that brings together works by contemporary artists—emerging and mid-career—from the Americas, Europe, and Asia, in dialogue with a series of original early 20th-century postcards and photographs by the renowned Peruvian photographer Martín Chambi.

Curated by Franklin Meléndez, Postales delves into landscape in its multiple dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, and even dreamlike. Inspired by the intimate and portable format of the postcard—an object that condenses memory and affection beyond its communicative function—the exhibition proposes a deep yet fragmented journey where each work operates as a visual message sent from a real or imagined place.

At the heart of the exhibition are photographic archives that reveal Martín Chambi’s mastery in documenting everyday life, traditions, and Andean landscapes. His work, now globally recognized, first gained international visibility through the postcard format, which allowed him to share his sensitive and monumental vision with audiences worldwide. These images coexist with diverse visual narratives by the participating artists: Majo Guerrero (Lima, Peru), Alejandro Mego (Lima, Peru), Aya Higuchi (Tokyo, Japan), Dana Powell (Wisconsin, USA), Lucas Rubly (São Paulo, Brazil), Nohemí Pérez (Tibú, Colombia), Kazuki Matsushita (Tokyo, Japan), Daichi Takagi (Gifu, Japan), Beaux Mendes (New York, USA), Joseph Jones (Birmingham, UK), Lin Olschowka (Münsterlingen, Switzerland), and Alexandra Noel (Los Angeles, USA).

“The contemporary artists featured in the exhibition inhabit a radically different context, yet they also turn to small-scale landscapes to explore our shifting sense of place. From diverse locations, they share a common thread in their attempt to capture the instabilities that define our present moment. They also approach landscape in a post-digital, post-social era, where the boundaries between the natural and the artificial have blurred to the point of becoming unrecognizable. In response, they offer a series of human-scale moments of chance, intimacy, and imaginative discovery,” says Franklin Meléndez, curator of the exhibition.

Postales is complemented by a display of classic postcards on loan, reinforcing the connection between art, memory, and correspondence. More than an exhibition, it is an invitation to reflect on how, through unexpected or unusual formats, art can challenge our notions of territory, belonging, and displacement.

The exhibition will remain on display until September 12 at Galería Gato, Jirón Breña 281, Plaza Bolognesi, Breña, Lima (Peru).

*Cover image: Credit Héctor Delgado