Valeria Nahyr Quiñones Torres
Valeria Nahyr (b. 1999, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico) is an artist based in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. Working principally with oil pastels, acrylic, markers, ink and oil on canvas and paper. She is best known for abstract-figurative compositions that combine coastal landscape cues with science-inflected motifs and a saturated Caribbean palette.
Nahyr’s art is moved by natural laws and scientific concepts. Her compositions are mainly based in dreams and the contemplation of introspective analysis that emerges from the dialogue between the realization of internal conflicts that translates into a spiritual context shaped by mystical experiences, visual perceptions, and message-bearing dreams.
Her studio process favors layered grounds, decisive multidirectional lines, and matte passages that heighten contrast and spatial rhythm. Rooted in a practice that began in early childhood and encouraged by her grandmother, Nahyr’s work is shaped by landscape elements, abstraction, figuration, movement and bold chromatic fields. Recurring strands include deforming structures and figures, creating scenes that can sometime convey movement. Her intrapersonal compositions are driven by transformation, memory and place. Recent bodies of work focus on coastal topographies, now a Biology student at University of Puerrto Rico at Mayagüez, she merges her academic knowledge in her works. Her examination of internal guidance through natural guidance reflects vitality, the dialogue between conflict and resolution, merging cultural aspects of her puertorrican coastal living, and the dynamic nature of the creative soul.
