ARTIST STATEMENT

My Cuban identity, my training as a mural restorer in historic buildings in Havana, and my studies in Fine Arts and Art History have had a profound influence on my artistic vision.

My creative process is rooted in the essence of “Cubanness”—a fusion of Cuba’s contemporary social evolution with the intercultural elements inherited from African and Spanish traditions. Cuban identity possesses enduring qualities where interculturalism and syncretism are constant themes. These values are reflected throughout my work.

With these ideas in mind, I have sought to explore the essence of Afro-Cuban religions and their impact on a new colonial environment. I am fascinated by the beauty hidden in the layers of mural paintings found in Havana’s old buildings—layers that serve as metaphors for the complex social and cultural fabric of contemporary Cuban society.

My experience restoring murals and my fascination with the polychromes buried for centuries within the walls of colonial architecture have been a constant source of inspiration. The Cuban tropical light, which casts a baroque atmosphere over these surfaces, together with their physical deterioration, has inspired many of my series focused on Havana.

In 1992, I moved to Europe, and later to New York. These environments deeply shaped my artistic development, expanding my exploration from the local to the universal. I began integrating my Cuban identity with human themes such as psychology, philosophy, and spirituality—searching for a sense of universality in art.

My focus evolved toward topics such as identity in a globalized world, loneliness, relationships, and the architecture of feelings. My Cuban perspective became global, though it remains my anchor in an increasingly interconnected world.

Gestural painting, expressionist automatism, and abstraction are the vehicles I use to express these concepts. As a global citizen, I perceive political, social, and cultural events as reflections that pass through my consciousness, where ideas, concepts, and images take form.

I constantly question the creative process, aware that in art, the object and its representation are similar, yet never identical. The object perceived is only one aspect of the object itself. Thus, the world portrayed in my paintings is deeply subjective—an ongoing negotiation between external reality and inner experience.