Painter Ynes Guevara is an artist born in México, but currently residing in New Zealand, and is a creative, self-taught artist passionate about shapes and colors. Her latest work pays homage to her culture and the culture she lives with outside her country in her Divas series.

"Divas was inspired by the idea of bringing back the earlier visual art exploration of a renowned artist to modern times," said Guevara.

The Divas series was her first solo show and the Nelson Suter Art Society Gallery was the host space. The exhibition included a group of canvases in which the artist depicts iconic female characters of Mexico. Mexican women who, in their time, were so admired for their personal aesthetics and the aesthetics of their works that they became important subjects to portray during the 1920s.

Women such as Frida Kahlo, artist and muse for other artists; Nieves Orzco; Tina Modotti, pioneer of social photojournalism and activist; and Nahui Olin, a Mexican painter and poetess, are the protagonists of Ynes Guevara's series. The painter pays tribute to all these women with works that, at the same time, pay tribute to Gordon Walters, a New Zealand painter and graphic designer with a style framed in modern art, fused with Maori art techniques.

Guevara's exhibition aims to promote multicultural relations and focuses on showing the enlightened woman in a contemporary context, re-imagining her in the 21st century.

The exhibition was held between November and December of last year, but the artist's pieces are still on sale.