MYNOR ESCOBAR

🇺🇸 English

"Art is the happening of the soul."

Guatemalan. Latin American figurative painter. Architect and Bachelor of Visual Arts. Throughout his career, he has worked as an architect, advertising creative, university lecturer, children's book illustrator, cultural promoter, and cultural photojournalist. An accomplished watercolorist, he is widely recognized in the Central American art scene for his pictorial series "TUKUR" (the Quiché word for owl), the central figure in a body of work deeply rooted in cultural syncretism. He also writes short stories and poetry, both of which are integrated into his artistic practice. He is the author of "Blue Eyes", a bilingual collection of poems; "Versus and Other Stories"; and "Stories of a Tukur", published in a bilingual edition.As an illustrator, he collaborated with artist Rafael Osuba on the children’s books "Wepa, Wepa, Quenepa" and "El salto de luna de Yuky", both bilingual editions. He also illustrated "Píldoras para la Memoria de Boston y Massachusetts", a book by Luis Fernando Vélez Gutiérrez. In 2020, he was the subject of the documentary "Discovering the Tukur".


Since 1984, he has been an active participant in Guatemala's visual arts movement. Among his most significant honors are:


In 2023, the Matices Cultural Center and the Embassy of Panama in Guatemala honored him in recognition of his more than 40 years of dedication to the visual arts. 


His work, particularly the "TUKUR" series, is represented in private collections in Guatemala and abroad, including Mexico, the United States, France, and other Central American countries. To date, he has presented 12 solo exhibitions, participated in more than 100 group exhibitions, and taken part in numerous art auctions at galleries and cultural institutions dedicated to the promotion of art and culture. His artistic production has been documented and published in catalogs and specialized publications on contemporary Guatemalan art.