The artist and his public

Camilo Villanueva was born in Buenos Aires on March 10, 1950. His father died the year his only son graduated from high school (1967). Married in 1976 and with 2 children, his life changed radically after his divorce, after 20 years of marriage. He then left his job in the capital and went to live in Villa General Belgrano, in Córdoba. 

For 12 years, he lived in a cabin in the Calamuchita Valley, where he founded the magazine Puente and dedicated himself to painting. In this creative exercise he experienced a true catharsis. “I needed to get everything out that I had inside me” says the artist. He exhibited in regional galleries such as Posta, El Sauce and Artempresa, who classify theirs as “Paintings of the Third Millennium”.

Following the death of his aunt and to take care of his mother (who died at the age of 85) he returned to the capital. Already in Buenos Aires, he painted in an improvised and small studio, “with little natural light and where cleaning supplies were kept”. Passionate about the inner world and the career of the Argentine painter, sculptor and writer, Xul Solar (1887-1963), he studied painting at the Rómulo Raggio museum (Buenos Aires) and specialized in the theory and practice of color. He presented his work in art galleries and tourist hotels. He was invited by the College of Professionals in Transpersonal Psychology of the Argentine Republic to exhibit at several conferences under the motto “A different artist for a different audience.” Sponsored by Espacio Escarlata (2010), he exhibited at the La Bellvillose Art Center in Paris.

Villanueva has written little, but finds that painting, like music and writing, spring from the same source or stream of consciousness. One day he takes pencil and paper and begins to write mechanically. He realizes that the words spring forth without reasoning. The result is a kind of lyrical message that could well be describing one of his canvases. But it was not until psychologist Alejandro Assayac told him that he learned that his paintings were connected to Analytical Psychology and the Collective Unconscious.

 The subconscious of art

“My painting is a complement to different forms of inner mobilization to get closer to the Collective Unconscious. It is just a link between those that exist and those that will come to reach Unity,” explains the painter.

Camilo Villanueva's Transpersonal Paintings began to be associated with analytical psychology for their symbolism and spirituality. They are elements that not only enrich the spirit, but they mix together to make the invisible visible and allow us to feel one with Creation. It is as if the visual impact, between geometric figures and colors, opened the portal that puts the soul in contact with the cosmos.

Paintings of the third millennium

Camilo Villanueva's art is considered a foundation for the work of CG Jung and an interesting contribution to the pictorial art of our time, by experts and professionals such as Jungian analyst Ana Delligiannis and adjunct professor at the School of European Languages, Culture and Society (College University of London) Martin Liebscher. Villanueva has been invited by CableVision and VCC to participate in various programs dedicated to art and to talk about his work.

In an exclusive review for the XXII International Congress of Analytical Psychology (2022) in Buenos Aires, the Spanish art critic Joan Lluís Montané points out that "the Argentine painter's contribution to contemporary painting is based on showing everything, starting from the evidence of this change, at a point where time on planet Earth seems to pass much faster and everything happens at an unusual pace. It is for this particular reason that its real challenge rests on the new possibilities that the progress of science, the evidence of essence, as well as realizing the complexity of everything that surrounds us offers and shapes our inner self.”

Create, not imitate

As for his artistic preferences, the Argentinean cites the Russian painter Vasili Kandisky (1866-1944), whose work he admires for its colors and shapes: “the artist whose goal is not the imitation of nature, wants and must express his inner world.” And he clarifies: “I did not follow any artistic current of any painter.” He emphasizes that Aristotle said that “the purpose of art is to give body to the secret essence of things, not to copy their appearance.”

“My painting speaks of the inner world, that common world where everything is transformed into unity,” Villanueva concludes.

Camilo Villanueva's paintings are exhibited in art portals in different countries around the world and are part of private collections in the United States of America and Australia. For more information about the artist and his work, visit his website:

https://www.camilovillanueva.com.ar