Biography 

Osvaldo Reyes (born 1919 Santiago, Chile- died 2007 Toronto, Canada) 

Osvaldo Reyes was a Chilean visual artist and educator based in Toronto. He was a professor and director of the Escuela Experimental Artistica in Chile until September 1973. In 1978 he moved to Mexico with his family, where he worked at the San Carlos Academy of Art for 10 years. In Mexico, he studied art with Mexican muralist artists David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Federico Cantu, Francisco de la Maza, Jose Gutierrez, and Raul Anguiano. He was also assistant to the Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral. Upon his return to Chile, Osvaldo Reyes painted the mural La Ronda, which was inspired by the work of Gabriela Mistral. In 1988 he moved to Toronto, where he continued his life as a painter, working mostly with oil on canvas and Indian ink. 

Osvaldo Reyes’s studio work focused on painting landscapes, still lifes, and portraits, all in his trademark social realist style. His work has been showcased in Canada and internationally, in the solo exhibitions Osvaldo Reyes: Painter of Hopes and Dreams (2008), curated by Rodrigo Barreda, Latin American Canadian Projects, Toronto, and Osvaldo Reyes: Retrospectiva 1973–2003: Chile México y Canadá (2003) at Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Chile.