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In permanent search

Arriving in Lima at the age of 16, the adventure of art began for Venancio Shinki. A passion that has taken him to different countries and that has allowed him to interpret, in his own way, everyday life, dreams and everything that moves him.

One day, the already expert photographer Venancio Shinki was looking at a magazine and an image surprised him by its perfection. But the photo was not such; It was an oil painting. Then he said to himself, "If someone is capable of painting something like a photograph, I want to learn how to do it." The next step was to enroll in the School of Fine Arts.

At that time you studied for 8 years and the School was going through a golden era due to the quality of the teachers. The restless Shinki, with his romanticism in tow, felt that painting was his thing and that it was a beautiful career, with which he might not get a job very soon, but which gave him all the freedom in the world.

"I entered the School thinking of being a portrait painter, but after a few years I realized that there were so many possibilities in line and color that I abandoned that idea completely and began the adventure of painting, knowing the trends of the entire world. world, mainly from Paris, New York and Italy, which were the cradle of art, also having teachers like Juan Manuel Ugarte Eléspuru, who is the best teacher I have ever had.

Upon graduating from Fine Arts in 1962, he was recognized with the Sérvulo Gutiérrez award for his class. Shinki's painting, by then, was already abstract expressionist and with this tendency he represented Peru at the Sao Paulo Biennial.

"It was the first trip of my life abroad. I was very young and I was ecstatic to meet the masters of painting, but I began to analyze what they did and what I did. Mine was not bad, but we were in of the same path, of abstract expressionism. Then I told myself, what nonsense! There is something wrong, I was very worried. Upon my return, I decided that I had to find my way, so I traveled to New York, capital of universal art.

There I realized, almost like a revelation, that I had to find that path in myself, in my heart, in my experiences. I returned to Peru and confined myself to my workshop in the center of Lima and did not go out for months, I worked and worked, until I began to come out little by little. I felt that Peru hurt me, like right now. My work as a newspaper cartoonist brought me closer to people. Venancio Shinki was no longer the same. "He was a man who was more hurt by what was happening in Peru and I interpret that in my own way."

"I am always trying to look for something that moves me. What burns me inside will somehow come out, I don't interpret it immediately, but I let it become blood, assimilate and be reflected in my painting"

In 2009, within the framework of the celebrations for the 110th anniversary of Japanese immigration to Peru, Shinki was distinguished as “Outstanding Nikkei” by the Peruvian Japanese Association.

The painter and his influences

The dreamlike sensation that comes from appreciating Shinki's paintings leads us to think about references that have to do with dreams or fantasies. "Evidently it is like that, but my paintings have a concrete birth. A pain, a joy, a hope, with complete certainty," the painter tells us.

"Now painting has changed, I have traveled so much, I have worked in Italy for some years, I had exhibitions, but trying to be more and more authentic and stay true to myself. I am going to die as a painter. At this moment there is a current in the biennials (Sao Paulo, Venice) where there are projections, installations... I'm not saying they are bad, but that has nothing to do with painting.

The painter thrives on everything. It remains an experience. What happens to one as a child, as a young man, when one falls in love. A book, a poem, a movie, music, are foods of the human being. It is an accumulation of elements that one assimilates, what moves you the most in one way or another will come out. But what I have learned is that I should not force who I am as a painter. I am of Japanese descent, from a Peruvian mother, born in Latin America, but I absolutely must not force my Japaneseness or my Peruvianness. Let everything come spontaneously to me. That attitude is what I try to have as a painter."

And with the authoritative voice that he represents, Shinki tells us about the Nikkei visual artists, among whom Eduardo Tokeshi and Aldo Shiroma stand out. "Their works are very interesting, and it is always stimulating to see a Nikkei standing out with personal proposals," he tells us.

Venancio Shinki, in a collective exhibition of Nikkei artists at the “Carlos Chiyoteru Hiraoka” Museum of Japanese Immigration to Peru.

Trip to Japan

Thanks to the efforts of the Japanese archaeologist Yoshio Onuki, and within the framework of the centenary of Japanese immigration to Peru, in 1999 Venancio Shinki traveled to Japan for the first time to attend an exhibition of Nikkei artists in Hiroshima and at the Museum of Man of Inuyama, where the painter Eduardo Tokeshi and the sculptor Carlos Runcie Tanaka also participated.

That trip also allowed him to meet relatives in Hiroshima, a surprise that they prepared for him, and of which his gestures and words speak of his deep emotion. Like the one he felt when ringing the bell at the end of the Holocaust Walk, remembering his father and feeling that it was a way of wishing peace and harmony.

An experience that adds to the many in his long career that continues with the same desire for search. "Being a painter means being stubborn, a little crazy, a little irresponsible, but it's worth it. It's a passion, without a doubt," says Shinki.

* This article is published thanks to the agreement between the Peruvian Japanese Association (APJ) and the Discover Nikkei Project. Article originally published in Kaikan magazine No. 1 and No. 2, July – August 2005 and adapted for Discover Nikkei.

© 2005 Asociación Peruano Japonea