Lastenia Canayo was born in 1962 on the banks of the Peruvian Amazon’s Ucayali River. She grew up in the in the Shipibo-Konibo community of Roaboya. Her name in Shipibo, Pecon Kena, means “she who calls the colors.”

Born into a family of craftspeople and artists, Lastenia grew up steeped in her culture’s traditional knowledge and design practices, which include pottery, kené (Shipibo line art application), weaving, embroidery and wood carving.

In 1997, her work outside the framework of “traditional” Shipibo art came to the attention of Peruvian historian, Dr. Pablo Macera, who published a collection of her art: Dueños de las Plantas (literally, “Plant Owners,” but better translated as “Plant Spirits”). This now hard-to-find book documents the emergence of Lastenia’s unique creative vision—her trademark representations of at least 600 distinct “plant spirits,” all part of the traditional Shipibo pharmacopeia.

Lastenia’s ingenious and aesthetically consistent depiction of these spirits across a variety of disciplines offers Westerners much more than a wildly imaginative and animated work of art. Each piece is a window into her intimate connection with the Amazon’s plant multiverse and offers non-indigenous viewers a rich and re-imaginative way to the consider all the plants around them.

With an indefatigable commitment to her own process, over the years Lastenia has become a point of reference for indigenous Amazon art. Her work can be found in some of the most important collections of Peru, including Museo de Arte de Lima, Museo de la Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, Museo del Banco Central del Peru and many private collections.

LASTENIA CANAYO