Gabriela Loayza

Gabriela Loayza (Machala, Ecuador, 1987) is an Ecuadorian visual artist whose work moves between figurative painting and material experimentation. She studied at the School of Design and Architecture at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where she began her creative exploration and received several honors for her academic projects. She later developed her artistic practice under the guidance of Ecuadorian artist Whitman Gualsaqui and through workshops with notable national artists such as Marcelo Aguirre, Antonio Romoleroux and Jaime Zapata. Her artistic research also led her to refine her technique with internationally recognized hyperrealist painters including Omar Ortiz (Mexico) and Antonio Castello Avilleira (Spain). Her work is characterized by oil-painted figurative images that merge with surfaces transformed through chemical reactions on metal, producing distinctive textures, stains and tonalities. These compositions explore the tension between realism and abstraction, where the human figure emerges and dissolves within atmospheric fields charged with symbolism and mystery. Her work has been exhibited in several cultural institutions in Ecuador, including the Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Benjamín Carrión, and in 2021 she presented her first international exhibition in Peru.