Yvonne
Mora
Harbors at dusk, crowded cafés, a jazz trio in full swing — everyday life painted in bold, joyful color.
Paintings that feel like the moment they remember — the warm light, the music, the water moving under the boats.
Born in Lima, Peru, and trained at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes, Yvonne Mora has exhibited from Tokyo to London and spent four decades painting the places where people gather: seaside terraces, harbor towns, dance halls and city streets.
Her loaded brush and fearless palette of cobalt, cadmium red and sunlit ochre turn ordinary afternoons into celebrations.
Read her storyFind your favorite
Bring a painting home.
Interested in an original, or in a commissioned piece of a place that matters to you — your harbor, your favorite café, your family’s street? Yvonne welcomes inquiries from collectors, galleries and first-time buyers alike.
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Selected works
Acrylic on canvas. Click any painting to see it larger. For availability, prices or commissions, use the “Inquire” button.
Yvonne Mora
Yvonne Mora was born in Lima, Peru, in 1959. Art ran in the family: her uncle, the painter Roberto Villegas, encouraged her from childhood. She went on to the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Lima, studying in the workshops of Andrés Molina Aquino and Enrique Galdós Rivas, and graduated in 1986 with the class named for the Peruvian painter Sérvulo Gutiérrez.
She was exhibiting before she had even graduated: in a five-artist show at the Municipality of San Isidro in 1984, in juried exhibitions at the U.S. Embassy (1985) and the Sheraton Hotel (1986) in Lima, and at the first Miami Biennial in 1986. Lima’s critics praised her strong color and quick, joyful brushwork. Her early Ambulantes series turned to the street vendors of Lima, finding hope and quiet dignity in their everyday work.
Her breakthrough came in Japan. A group of Japanese collectors who had met her in Peru founded a “Friends of Yvonne Mora” association, and in February 1987, with the support of the Embassy of Peru, they presented her first solo exhibition, The Essence of the Peruvian People, at the Tsukuba Center Building. More than 1,300 people came to see it. A second solo show in Tsukuba the following year drew over 1,000 visitors, and in December 1989 she showed The People and the Sea of Peru at Gallery Space 21 in Tokyo, donating part of the proceeds to an orphanage for Peruvian children. Back home in 1987, she also presented twelve new paintings at Galería Cosmos in Miraflores.
In the years that followed she was selected for the JAALA Biennial and Triennial in Japan and the Young Artists Biennial in Miami, and in 1994 she was the guest artist at an exhibition at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Over four decades Yvonne has exhibited in Peru, Japan, Puerto Rico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, England, Switzerland and Spain. Wherever she shows, her subjects stay close to her heart: harbors, cafés, music and everyday life, painted in bright acrylic color.
Education
Solo exhibitions
Biennials & selected group shows
Group exhibitions & art fairs
Selected group shows and art fairs in cities across the Americas and Europe:
- Beverly Hills Art Festival, California, USA
- Laguna Beach, California, USA
- Manhattan Beach, California, USA
- Santa Barbara, California, USA
- Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Ottawa, Canada
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- London, England
- Zurich, Switzerland
Press & archive
Newspaper clippings and exhibition invitations from her career. Click any item to read it.
On the work
Yvonne paints quickly and with conviction, laying down thick, unblended strokes and outlining forms in dark, decisive line. Faces are suggested rather than described; what matters is the gesture of a dancer, the tilt of a summer hat, the way reflected color breaks apart on moving water. The result sits between Impressionism and Expressionism — light-filled and immediate, yet structured, graphic and full of rhythm.
Where her work has been shown
13 places · 10 countries · 4 decades
Let’s talk
Questions about a painting, a commission, an exhibition or a press request — send a note and Yvonne will get back to you.
Acquiring a painting
Mention the title of the work you’re interested in, and you’ll receive details on size, availability and pricing.
Commissions
Tell her about the place, people or moment you’d like painted, plus any size you have in mind. Photos can be shared once you’re in touch.
Galleries & press
Exhibition proposals, interviews and image requests are welcome.
