Welcome
The Guna indigenous people of Panama have for centuries made rather wonderful art - in ancient times, these designs were done as body paintings - later transitioned to fabric art as a more lasting medium and incorporated into Guna women's clothing. Most Guna people live in the semi-autonomous Guna Yala region of Panama, also known as the San Blas islands, on the Caribbean side of the country. The Guna tribe won their semi-autonomous lands and governance rights after an armed revolt in 1925. They were not willing to accept government mandates to exclusively adopt Western ways, the Spanish language and to accept government dominion over their ancestral homeland. They refused these mandates and won - a very unusual outcome for indigenous peoples.
The Guna art in these galleries are mainly from a Guna extended family who understood the vision of bringing Guna art to the wider world. They partnered with Cesar Amaya a native Panamanian street artist/Guna language translator/marketing team member, and Leigh & LeAnne Anderson who are dual residents of Panama and the U.S. Leigh's day job is at Siemens Software managing grants of software for tens of thousands of students at hundreds of universities around the world and sponsoring student engineering competitions, after a long career in technical software product line management and marketing. He is also a photographer and crypto-advocate/investor since 2017. LeAnne is a fabric artist focused mainly on quilts - she did the curation/selection of the pieces for this first collection.
Josefina RodrÃguez Tejada
Place of birth: San Blas Islands / Isla Carti Tupile
35 years ago Josefina left her life in the Islands to live in Panama City with her family to share her deep knowledge about Molas art to the next generations in her extended family. She learned to sew Molas since she was 9 years old. She likes to make all kinds of molas, Animals, traditional and ancestral.
Laurina Chiari
Place of birth: San Blas / Isla Carti Tupile
22 years ago she left her life in the Islands to live in Panama City as an artisan making Molas.
Her favorite Molas are the geometric or traditional type.
Ligia MartÃnez
Place of birth: San Blas / Isla Nargana
13 years ago she left her life behind in her islands hometown to seek new horizons in Panama City with her family, She learned to create molas in 2020 during the pandemic, because Nargana island is a more modern town dedicated to the business of consumer trade businesses. She likes to make Molas with flower and animal designs.
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(More Guna artist profiles to come)