From a very early age, I have been and continue to express myself through different artistic manifestations, which I frequently combine in the same project. Among all of them, painting always had a prominent place, even painting and handicrafts, was a means of making a living in Cuba. For its part, music also had a prominent place, especially since I became a soloist. And it is for all these reasons that they are the ones that mark the stages of my art, which fluctuated between exhibitions, compositions linked to paintings or independent works, and concerts.
About my painting
My painting has always been and is the reflection of that unknown and capricious reality called mind. It attracts me and that is why I observe it while doing an exercise of introspection. In my works I tell stories of the mind through characters, their surroundings, objects and intentions. As a kind of x-ray that discovers the way they feel their immediate reality, how they process their emotions, what are their desires, their projects, their thoughts, philosophy, their beliefs and also, how the pure psyche lives that manifests itself only in the limits of what we call the inner world. When observing the mind, I pay special attention to the whims of the imagination, which sometimes reveals something beyond the usual perception. That is why I have always focused on surrealism, to see this part of reality that has a different life. This is how the surrealist figurative style of my work is defined, which at one time was linked to tropical surrealism due to the influence of Cuban reality. As part of the creative process and in most cases, I write stories, short stories or poems that complement the paintings. In specific cases, I add to the series a musical work that is presented as part of the work.
The four main stages that delimit my painting works:
I can frame my painting works in four stages that motivate its creation:
Cuban reality or "The Harlequin's Secret".
It shows life in Cuba focused from the psychology and imagination of the characters, which merges with the surrealism in which the city is immersed.
The Harlequin's Secret, besides the name of the series, is the title of a painting in which a character, disguised in a costume popular among Cuban painters of that time, hides a "secret" or rather, something that cannot be expressed.
Title: The Harlequin's Secret.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Year: 1989.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Year: 1989.
Man Through Time
Project that exposes the beliefs, thought and art of the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic civilization. This multimedia exhibition was presented on August 1, 1990 at the House of the Arabs in Havana City and consisted of: paintings, reproductions, sculptures, music, dance and writing.
Reproductions of papyrus and posters with messages (mixed technique).
Sculptures made basically with paper pulp for the exhibition Man Through Time, 1990.
The Landscapes of Man
Project that seeks to reveal the human essence and its relationship with the whole. It raises the perception from two points of view: standing inside and standing outside of all things, as well as introducing the concept of the nucleus, already exposed in a work from 1989. This multimedia project, shared with my friend and painter Eduardo Valladares, was presented at the International Press Center in Havana City on April 21, 1997 and included paintings, music, poems, short stories, the presentation of a book, and a mini-conference given by its author, Professor Juan Enrique Guerrero.
Self-portrait in front of one of the paintings in the exhibition Los Paisajes del Hombre (1997).
From the within (life from the inside)
At this stage, the mind that I observe is more conscious, more sensitive, realizes itself, and therefore intuits the nucleus and its latent possibilities. It feels the need to create and reveal a universe that it shares through art, at the same time that it breaks down before our eyes, the whole structure of the system that chooses its inexhaustible curiosity.
From within is composed of two forms of visual expression:
Flowerya:
Takes the name of the ubiquitous element in all works: the flower, as a symbol of life that represents the cycle of creation.
Motivated by curiosity and using the tool of the intellect, I try to discover and break down the components of a system, decipher its intention and transform it from its differentiated version to the unified one.
Being:
The character (the being) located at the core (not referring to a physical location, but to a state), triggers from its intention-inspiration the manifestation-differentiation of one of the latent possibilities, thus creating a system, an environment, an object, an artistic work. The self-expression he shares in the form of art, science or philosophy.
Title: Playing a musical theme with my wind bird.
Technique: Acrylic on canvas.
Dimensions: 81cms high x 60 cms wide.
Finished: October 2, 2021.
Technique: Acrylic on canvas.
Dimensions: 81cms high x 60 cms wide.
Finished: October 2, 2021.