Walther Sánchez (Arequipa, Peru, b. 1998) is a visual artist whose painting practice explores masculinity, queer identity, and the poetics of representation through portraiture. A graduate with honors from the National University of San Agustín of Arequipa (UNSA), he pursued complementary studies in printmaking at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) and Peruvian art history at the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM). His research interests have also informed his artistic practice, including participation in the CISETC 2021 research program at UNSA.
Working primarily through the male figure, Sánchez examines intimacy, vulnerability, and the politics of visibility, often centering queer subjectivities. His paintings are marked by a sustained investigation into materiality and painterly process, developed through self-directed experimentation beyond alla prima techniques. Rather than constructing overt narratives, his works privilege atmosphere and presence, capturing fleeting moments of youth, embodied encounters, and the charged gaze as a site of connection between subject and viewer.
Sánchez’s practice unfolds through interconnected bodies of work, including Transitando lo negable, which reflects on recognition and self-discovery; Arequipeños, a critical meditation on local identity and cultural belonging; and Visibles, a series of portraits that confront the viewer with direct gazes set within open, psychologically resonant spaces.
His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including Portraits of Tizian in Italy, Queers from Perú at Mooiman Galerie in the Netherlands, and Conmemorar y Celebrar at the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral in Santiago, Chile. His practice has been recognized with distinctions such as the XV National Painting Competition at the Central Reserve Bank Museum of Peru and the ICPNA Contemporary Art Prize, for which he has been a finalist in multiple editions. Sánchez is represented by Isabel Croxatto Galería in Chile and collaborates with Mooiman Galerie (Netherlands) and Newman Galerie (Germany). His work is held in private collections in the United States, Chile, the Netherlands, Spain, and Peru.
He lives and works in Arequipa, Perú