Visual Arts

In recent editions

A ode for Osvaldo

By Roxana Consuegra Photos courtesy of artist

Incense burning, plumes of smoke unfurling, a cello picks out notes of a baroque melody. This is the distinctive studio of acclaimed Cuban jeweller Osvaldo Castilla Romero. A space where universal energies unite with the spirit of the soul to conceive an art all of its own, bringing forth forms created from the most diverse of materials. Wood, stone, metals, leathers, seeds, even acrylics can be discerned among the elements, treated equally and brought together to create a fusion of body and art. The jeweller argues that “jewellery is for wearing” and this is the basis of his work: pieces for everyday use that transcend the limits of a display cabinet.

May Reguera, Beyond the Curtain

By Wina Acosta

Young Cuban actor and photographer May Reguera’s instant images display the emotion that her work as an actor brings her. She thinks as she picks up the camera, looking at the world through her lens and ultimately capturing a unique and unrepeatable moment, a reflection of her intellectual and spiritual evolution.

Revisiting Hersey

By Julia Portela Ponce de León

The town of Hershey, to the east of Havana, has once again become a focus for Cuban photographer Alfredo Sarabia’s creative process. His relationship with this space began in 2013 when he shot his Model Town (Pueblo Modelo) series. These images told the story of a community founded by US industrialist and philanthropist Milton Hershey, who brought his concept of a model town to Cuba having previously founded one in Pennsylvania in the US.

Alfredo Sarabia, Spontaneity Within Marvellous Reality

By Yanisbel Peña Pérez

For Cuban photographer Alfredo Sarabia telling stories through the lens is a passion, a way to relate and understand reality in order to then show it from a different point of view.

Roberto Chile, The Duality of Being

By Daimarelys Pérez

Prolific communicator Roberto Chile uses many of his talents to express emotions and to feel that life is not just a journey where we play to win or to lose, where there are no half-way houses, there’s only success or failure. “By now I’ve asked myself so many times in my life the question of who we are and where we come from.” This was one of the statements that the artist chose to begin the conversation.

High Tension Art

By Viviana Díaz Frías

Since time immemorial, art has served to question human beings and their reality. This premise still remains today and it is used by many artists to convey their opinions on the society they live in.

Niels Reyes Captivated by Painting

By Mercy Ramos

Painting is young Cuban artist Niels Reyes’ preferred form of expression because from the moment he started his studies at Cuba’s Instituto Superior de Arte—the country’s top higher education arts institute—painting captivated him.

Ernesto Milanés: Tireless Toiler

By Mercy Ramos, Photos: José Meriño

The day’s twenty four hours are not sufficient for renowned Cuban artist Ernesto Milanés Ruiz who asserts that he works twenty five. For this untiring sculptor, “work achieves everything.” In an exclusive interview with Cubaplus, Milanés talked extensively about his work as a sculptor and explained that his work in general is dedicated to the cigar because in his own words he’s “a hardened smoker.”

Niels Reyes, Captivated by Painting

By Mercy Ramos

Carlos Torres and the Art of Drawing with a Camera Lens

By Viviana Díaz Frías

Despite the controversy around photography’s inclusion within the world of fine art, there are exponents of this art form who show both through their work and their words that theirs is an artistic expression of reality through the lens of a camera.

An Artist’s Transparent Secret

By Roberto F. Campos, Photos: Publicitur (Norlys)

Buildings are are often compact structures behind which lie pieces of reality and scattered ideas. But despite their apparent solidity, façades can become so translucent that their most intimate secrets are exposed.

Antonio Hernández: Art Saved Me

By Glenda Arcia

What happens behind the scenes moments before going onto the runway, introspection before facing the public, fears, personal conflicts. All these are captured by Antonio Hernández’s lens in dressing rooms, an exposure that puts aside superficial beauty and aims to uncover individual mysteries.

Isabel Santos: Wax made Poetic

By Glenda Arcia Photos: Emilio Herrera

Young girls with fluttering wings, boys on horseback, aflight, dancers as well as little devils - all emerge from the hands of Isabel Santos once she starts working with wax. The material becomes poetry, and each of the figures expresses Santos’ feelings and experiences, as a sculptor, as a mother, as a woman.

GTG, Art that breaks the drum

By Mercy Ramos / Photos: José Meriño

Down the same streets once plied by the legendary Cuban bookie and brothel owner Alberto Yarini, and just a stone’s throw from the house where Cuba’s National Hero José Martí was born, a new art gallery with the potential to make its own history has emerged: the Galería Taller Gorría (Gorría Studio/ Gallery), at 214 San Isidro, in the heart of Old Havana. It’s a place meant to focus on the creation of contemporary art, in an environment that encourages experimentation and the search for new forms of expression.

On Cuban Art in Panama, as told by Nivaldo Carbonell

By Rigoberto Otaño

Over the last few years, Panama has grown closer and closer to Cubans. Whether this closeness is due to its geographic proximity, or the similar climate and culture, on more than one occasion the Isthmus has been a mandatory reference point. Of course, art is no exception. For some time, the news of a gallery in Panama dedicated to promoting young Cuban artists has been making the rounds, especially locally. By now, the project is firmly established and we spoke with its director, Nivaldo Carbonell.