The master of the collagraphy Eduardo Roca (Choco), as part of the Leo Brouwer VI Festival Chamber Music program, offers a selection of his recent work, this time in three dimensions.
Five large sculptures, four in bronze: Ballerina, The Hug, Adam and Eve, Writing Mechanics and Hummingbird, an installation that makes wood dialogue with collagraphy, are part of the exhibit that will leave behind his known prints and paintings that made him from the seventies one of the most significant Cuban contemporary artists.
The exhibition can be seen from 6:00 pm on Friday September 26 at the Cuban Art Factory.
In the selection are also known including wooden boxes belonging to the permanent exhibition of the Factory. These drawers will undergo various materials by the artist soon to exhibit alongside the bronzes.
In the selection there are also included the known wooden boxes belonging to the permanent exhibition of the Factory. These drawers will be worked upon with various materials by the artist soon to exhibit alongside the bronzes.
To celebrate his sixty-fifth birthday, which will be on October 13, the creator experiment with procedures of the visual arts that previously were alien to him. This selection summarizes his sculptures, displayed in the last five years he has endowed his art in new aesthetic overtones and innovative techniques.
Choco pioneered this technique in Latin America, a real precursor, as some think he was the one who invented this difficult way to engrave, due to the dissimilar contributions that he made to it.
“Collagraphy is a very contemporary printmaking technique, emerged in the fifties, it was created by an American of French origin, surnamed Goethe. In the eighties, we started to dabble in it and I was one of the first. There was Alfaro, Oscar Carballo. After I start working inventing and because the special period comes, and that technique then came in handy, because we don’t need to use large resources, “said the artist to OnCuba.
Although you have always made ceramics, bronze sculpture is a new stage of your work. How important do you think these new works are to your career?
“I consider it very important to express myself in the third dimension at this stage of my creation. As you know I’ve dabbled in polychrome ceramics on several occasions with my recurring themes. I think the bronze sculpture gives greater connotation to my work. It is interesting to move my prints and paintings, their characters and motives to the third dimension. This gives greater impact and can be perceived and interpreted in a more comprehensive and general way. ”
What does it mean to you to be part with your work in the coming Leo Brouwer Festival?
“I have three years exposing collaterally with this festival. For me it is a great honor and privilege to be called by this great artist and friend whom I admire and appreciate. It is very important part of this festival with my works from the visual arts revering the music and the life and work of Leo. ”
A recipient the Alejo Carpentier orders and distinction for National Culture, among other significant recognition both inside and outside Cuba, Choco is highly prized by collectors, auctions and connoisseurs of the visual arts on the planet.
Over two hundred group and personal exhibitions support his work. He has used in his work as topics as race and Afro-Cuban religion, “Cuban religion,” as he calls it. He has captured the rich features like few of his people and his land, traditions and myths, using warm and cool colors, dim, bright colors, always framed by the research and experimentation.
