- published: 12 Dec 2014
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Ximena Armas, born 29 July 1946 in Santiago (Chile), is a Chilean painter.
Ximena Armas Fernández first attended the Escuela de Bellas Artes at the Universidad de Chile, then the Escuela de Artes at the Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, where she was trained by Mario Carreño, Eduardo Vilches, and Mario Toral. Upon her arrival in France in 1971, she attended the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She lives in Paris, and is married to the French painter Henri Richelet.
Since 1969, she has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Chile, France, Spain, and Mexico.
Ximena Armas's works hide secrets. Nothing is revealed; all is instead veiled with ribbons and bands, hemmed with curtains, burrowed beneath a mass of stones. She fringes all her paintings with mystery, dresses them with shades. One is struck at once by their odd composition, made of striped bands, ruffled feathers, or beach huts. Her figures hide or suddenly appear as shadows or silhouettes. The artist plays at staging over and over again the familiar elements of her dreamlike world, thus totally mastering space and swamping it with symbols.