The power of your soul, new exhibition by Roberto Diago

The new solo exhibition by Cuban artist Roberto Diago is entitled “The power of your soul” and can be seen in the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, from December 10 until January 11, 2014.

The collection is the continuation of an earlier one dedicated to Obatala, Orisha of the Yoruba pantheon, representing purity, serenity and intelligence. The dimensions of the works and the play with the textures of the materials together with the richness of the white color are the main formal characteristics. There are pieces made from 1993 to the present that had not been shown before in Cuba. They are made from canvas, pieces of old wood and veneer metal drums, among other recycled materials.

After four years away from the exhibition circuit in the capital, Diago reappears to deliver a reunion with his artistic career. His usual themes and the peculiar use of the materials return to the gallery, which incorporates new insights to plastics solutions, witnesses of a renewed creativity. This time the material speak for itself and the story is diluted therefore the relationship of the object space rules.

In “The Power of Your Soul”, the artist brings together a body of work which emphasizes the structural aspect, while favoring other interpretive possibilities, anchored in a plastic self-referential thinking and perspective of great symbolic value.

To convey the strength of its parts, the assembly and organization by Marilyn Sampera plays a fundamental role. They are located in the black painted walls of rooms on the second floor of the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art. Impact and surprise are some of the reactions that visitors experience in front of the works of over 10 meters in length, which endorses the atmosphere, created among the white color that prevails in the works with black walls and the atmosphere that the lighting design achieves. It is a unique moment to talk with each of the pieces.

Diago is a graduate from the “San Alejandro” Academy of Fine Arts in 1990. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Cuba, Spain, France, United States and Puerto Rico and other countries and has participated in group exhibitions, fairs and International Auctions. He has the Order of National Culture. His works are in private and institutional collections in Cuba , France, Panama , Spain , Portugal, Mexico and the United States .