Fellaheen II
Fetish II
Fellaheen III
At the Slaughterhouse
Jungle Mask
Chino
Paris Series II (Rubio)
Paris Series IV (Open Mask)
Mask for Urban Cannibal
Mocoso I
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Havana, Cuba. I moved to the United States in 1961, and enrolled at Miami Dade Junior College in 1968. There I studied fine arts with Duane Hanson, Shirley Henderson, and Salvatore La Rosa. In those years, I majored in painting, and my heroes back then were Pollock, De Kooning, Kline, and Gorky. During this period in my life, I discovered Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Surrealism, Expressionism, The Cobra Group, creative photography, and other important avant-garde movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. The teacher who influenced me the most was the late Cuban artist Emilio Estevez, who died before he could fulfill the promise of his talent.
After graduating, I moved to New York City, where I collaborated with The Young Filmmakers, a film and video collective. In 1980, I collaborated with La Mama Theater in coordinating the Annual Arts Festival at Cooper Square.
Years later, in Miami, I worked sporadically at Lascaux Art Studio, under the direction of Carlos Perera. I organized and directed the First Anniversary show of the Miami Arts Asylum at the Cameo Theater, and created the Street Museum on Miami Beach, FL. From the late Eighties to the Early Nineties, I launched the Street Art Movement, which proved instrumental in saving the historic Art Deco District in Miami Beach.
EDUCATION
The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 1990; Diploma in Applied Photography, Miami Dade Junior College, 1968-1970. Associate Degree in Fine Arts.
REVIEWS
The Miami Herald, The New Times, Revista Exito (Miami, FL); XS Magazine (Fort Lauderdale, FL); Zona Franca (Caracas, Venezuela); Escolios (California State University, Los Angeles, CA); New York Soho Arts Magazine; Cover Magazine (New York, NY); ID Magazine (New York, NY); Los Años de Orígenes and Rostros del Reverso, Ediciones Monte Avila (Caracas, Venezuela); The Wire, Antenna, and Postmortem Magazines (Miami Beach, FL); Brújula (published by the Latin American Writers’ Institute, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of CUNY); El Diario La Prensa (New York, NY); Hoy (New York, NY); Hybrido (published by the Graduate School and University Center of the City of New York, review by Dr. Gerardo Piña; Sibila Magazine (Sao Paulo, Brazil); Rizoma Magazine (Buenos Aires, Argentina).
EXHIBITIONS
World Gallery (Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Miami, FL); Lowe Art Museum (University of Miami); Amdur and Lowe-Levinson Art Gallery (Miami Beach, FL); Storefront for Art and Architecture NY (New York, NY); Miami Art Center on Kendall Drive ( later called the Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Coral Gables, Miami, FL); Caroline Gallery (Coral Gables, FL) Nuyorican Poets Café (New York, NY); Cayman Gallery (SoHo, New York, NY); Galería Luis Arcelay Caguas (Puerto Rico); Saint John’s University (Jamaica, NY); 450 Gallery (SoHo, NY); Street Museum I, Miami Beach Art’s Asylum hits the streets (Casa Grande Hotel, Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL); Street Museum II (Victor Hotel, Ocean Drive, Miami Beach, FL); Street Museum III, Save the Sands Outdoor Installation, art engagé for the preservation of the historic Art Deco District on Collins Avenue (Miami Beach, FL); Street Museum IV, Man and Bull Installation (Rayzelle Apts, Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL); Street Museum V, Antonin Artaud Outdoor Installation (Wooster Street, SoHo, NY); 112 Mercer Street Open Studio Exhibition (SoHo, NY); Museo del Barrio Arts Festival (New York, NY); Jadite Gallery, New York, New York; Paik and Gage Exhibition, a series of my photographs of John Gage exhibited along with the photographic collages and drawings of Nam June Paik, at the Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse, New York.
TELEVISION
MTV covered my one-man photography exhibition at the World Gallery (Miami Beach, FL) in 1991. In 1996 my photographic installation at the Nuyorican Poets Café appeared on a CBS news clip on spoken word poetry, which featured a guest appearance by Allen Ginsberg. I directed a short television pilot on Brazilian percussion; my guest artist was the world-renowned percussionist Cyro Baptista.
PUBLICATIONS OF MY VISUAL WORKS
Miami Herald (Miami, Florida); The New Times (Miami, Florida); Brùjula (published by The Latin American Writers Institute, Eugenio Maria DeHostos, Community College of CUNY; Hybrido (New York, New York); Not Black and White: Inside Words from the Bronx Writers Corps, edited by Mary Hebert; King Death and other Poems by Sharkmeat Blue (Selva Editions, Boulder, Colorado); The Wire, Antennae, and Post Mortem Magazines (Miami Beach, Florida); Fisura Arts Magazine (New York, New York); I. D Magazine (New York, New York); Vavel Magazine (New York, New York) Avenue BE Magazine (New York, New York). My work has been published in the South Florida Guide to the Arts.
MISCELLANEOUS
I have slides of my work in the archives of the Yale University Art Gallery. My photographs were favorably mentioned in a lecture that Richard S. Field (Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs at Yale University’s Art Gallery) gave at Boston University. My photographic one-man show at the World Gallery was curated by world-renowned photographer Jill Freedman. I shared the credits for a promo piece with world-renowned photographer Ellen Von Unworth.
From the middle Nineties up until recently, I devoted myself to literary work. I was published in many magazines, gave many readings, and published and edited Avenue BE Magazine. During this period, I continued my work in photography. In the last few years, I have returned to my first love: painting. At this time, I find myself most influenced by the sacred arts of Mankind’s earliest cultures.