An interview with: Geenss Archenti
- Brandon Pestano
- Sep 17
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 20
Astral speak with magical Peruvian visionary artist @geenssarchenti
Geenss Archenti, a Peruvian artist from Tarapoto in the San Martín region, has developed a distinctive style that merges visionary and symbolic imagery. His work is marked by finely detailed portraits, often of elders, guardians, or cultural figures, set within vibrant, organic patterns that echo the forms of plants, animals, and ancestral motifs of the Amazon. His paintings often emerge from experiences with ayahuasca and other ancestral medicines, where visions of spirit guides, elemental forces, and interconnected natural patterns appear. Archenti translates these visions into finely detailed portraits and mystical landscapes, weaving together human figures and biomorphic designs.
Interview presented in collaboration with @psychedelicarchives
Read on below for the full interview...
How has 2025 been so far for you? Are there any ideas or feelings arising recently that you would like to share?
2025 has begun with a lot of movement - both within and around me. I’ve been traveling to new places with my art, meeting remarkable people, and feeling doors open in ways I couldn’t have imagined. It has been a beautiful start to the year, and I feel deeply grateful. This year also marks a turning point: I’m beginning to build my own gallery and workshop, a place where I can share my work in my hometown and offer art classes — both online and in person in the Peruvian Amazon.
At the same time, I remain aware of the challenges in the world: wars, environmental destruction, and the rapid transformation brought by technology. I often ask myself how art can continue to be a living force in such a time. For me, art is not only a personal journey - it’s a way to hold space for beauty, memory, and connection, especially when the world feels uncertain.
When did you first realise you had a gift for creating visionary art, and what motivates you to pursue a life of art?
Since a young age, I dreamed of being a painter - like Davinci. But the path revealed itself slowly. For five years, I painted replicas inside a castle built in an Indigenous community near my home. In 2016, I began experimenting with natural pigments made from medicinal plants. That same year, I had an ayahuasca ceremony and met another artist whose work inspired me deeply. Those two encounters - the plant and the meeting - opened a new chapter in my life. Soon after, I began traveling with my work to Europe, where it was received with warmth and curiosity.
I still feel the same excitement in discovering new techniques, but I also know that one day I will return to natural pigments. They connect me directly to the wisdom of traditional healers and the plant world I was born into. Perhaps my connection with visionary art comes from being born in a place where curanderismo - the healing arts - is part of daily life. For me, art is a profound healing path. My greatest wish is for my paintings to bring healing to others, just as they do for me.
Is there a particular story of a plant medicine experience inspiring a painting of yours that you would like to tell us about?
When I was a child, my mother would take my siblings and me to visit a local healer. He was an elder with a deep, knowing gaze, who would welcome us in the soft glow of a candle. He would sing ícaros - sacred songs - and gently blow tobacco smoke over our heads, our chests, our backs, our hands, and our feet. It was his way of blessing us, protecting us, and keeping us in balance. One of my first paintings that recalls this memory is called Icaro de Amor (Song of Love). People often ask why I paint people smoking. For me, tobacco is a grandfather, a master plant. It is a medicine of clarity, protection, and prayer. When I work with tobacco, I do so with intention. It helps me focus and return to my center, and its presence in my paintings is a tribute to the role it has played in my life.
Could you describe what ancestral wisdom represents to you personally, and how it influences your artwork?
Ancestral wisdom is ancient knowledge - healing techniques, plant medicines, songs, and ways of living passed down through countless generations. When I first began painting, I was drawn to portraying elders - grandmothers and grandfathers whose faces carry the weight of time and the light of experience. They are the ones who still live in deep connection with the plants, the animals, and the rhythms of the jungle.
For me, “ancestral” is not something belonging to the past. It is a living thread that must be preserved and shared for the well-being of humanity. In my paintings, I often include plants, spirit animals, and figures who represent wisdom keepers of the Amazon. These elements are not mere decoration - they are carriers of memory.
What was it like growing up in the Amazon rainforest? Who or what were some of the biggest influences on you in your youth?
My childhood was simple and full of nature. The river, the trees, the rains - they were my playground and my teachers. I learned to repair and invent things, to make instruments or tools with whatever was available. Music was always present in my life and still is today. I’ve always been drawn to native instruments, their sounds and rhythms. When I’m not painting, I love to play and improvise music with friends.
The local legends and myths I heard as a child still echo in my work, as do my memories of riding my motorbike through the village or hiking to waterfalls. These experiences gave me a sense of freedom and connection that I now carry into my art.
What does spirituality mean to you?
For me, spirituality is remembering who we truly are and living in connection with both the visible and invisible worlds. It’s not separate from daily life - it’s woven into the way I create, the way I share, the way I meet others. I sometimes smoke mapacho - Amazonian tobacco - not as a habit, but with intention. It brings me inner peace, clears my mind, and focuses my energy.
In the same way, creating art is like a ceremony. Every piece I paint is a process of connection - with myself, with spirit, and with the person who will one day receive it. I place intentions and prayers into the work so that it carries something beyond the image. As C.G. Jung said, “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument.” For me, that drive is also a spiritual calling.
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