Vasquez de la Horra’s wax-dipped pencil drawings are at once personal and universal. Her work explores such vast themes as Chile’s history (her native country), religion, sex, myths, social realities, folk culture and death; some of which are recurring throughout her practice. The viewer is drawn into her universe of fantastic creatures haunted by carnal and psychological concerns.

Clearly influenced by literature, and more specifically Chilean poet Nicanor Parra’s antipoetry, Vasquez de la Horra’s pencil drawings convey the same humor, irony and irreverence typical of Parra’s radical anti- lyricism. The artist’s imagery reflects the serious, the comic and the ordinary of the common man’s everyday existence depicted in a visual language that is high-spirited, coated with black humor and rooted in popular culture.

As in Parra’s use of banal language and humorous turns of phrase to depict often tragic or pathetic situations, Vasquez de la Horra’s work embodies the same irony and humanism. In some of her works, the titles are written in large letters within the drawing itself, becoming an integral part of the imagery, in Spanish, English or German. The way in which the artist combines text and image comes close to the aesthetics of visual poetry.