{"id":212562,"date":"2020-01-20T19:10:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T00:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=212562"},"modified":"2020-01-20T19:50:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T00:50:40","slug":"victor-gomez-miami-has-become-a-metropolis-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/culture\/visual-arts\/victor-gomez-miami-has-become-a-metropolis-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"V\u00edctor G\u00f3mez: \u201cMiami has become a metropolis of art\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

V\u00edctor G\u00f3mez (Havana, 1941) is an important name in the catalog of Cuban contemporary art. Few know it. Even he doesn’t believe it himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Affiliated to the Engraving Workshop of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), founder and coordinator of the group \u201cNueve versiones del paisaje\u201d (1976), member of the UNEAC, and of the Council of Advisers of the Ministry of Culture, when he left Havana to settle in Florida, in 1980, he had already participated in more than 80 collective exhibits, both inside and outside the country. The ominous gray quinquennium had started being surpassed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy arrival in Miami was chaotic. Settling in a city you don’t know always causes uncertainty. I was afraid that this displacement, which is not only geographical if it involves Cubans, could alter the course of my life as an artist. I came from the Havana of the 1970s, where I had a constant artistic activity; I left behind my professional relationships, my friends, my vital and artistic references. That world collapsed when it collided with a different reality, with a different culture and with a different socio-political environment. At the time I was 39, a not very advisable age to try to reinvent one\u2019s life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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V\u00edctor G\u00f3mez. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Could you be more specific\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

I felt like a fish out of water. Everything was new and confusing. I had to become part of the environment quickly. I worked as a street vendor. It was for a short time. And that was when I met a Cuban-Venezuelan family that bought the first works on paper, which, in the midst of the chaos, I had already done.<\/span><\/p>\n

That providential family was my first financial support here. They bought my works from 1980 to 1983. For any emigrant, the first three years are very hard, and more so for a visual artist who intends to not abandon his career, and that it, in addition to aesthetic satisfaction, feed him. The tunnel that is mentioned so much. This generous support gave me the chance to settle down, meet new collectors and galleries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, despite such a drastic change, I can consider myself a lucky man. The abhorrent street vendor job (abhorrent to me, I clarify; it’s as worthy as any other) lasted only three months. From then on, until today when I\u2019m reviewing this with you, I have lived from my art work. I resumed my path and my vocation with new vigor. Although I felt\u2015why not say it?\u2015a certain nostalgia for Cuba\u2019s artistic world, which I had enjoyed so much.<\/span><\/p>\n

How was Miami\u2019s cultural life then?<\/b><\/p>\n

More than modest. I would say poor. There was no huge colony of artists who work here today, coming not only from Cuba, but from countless Latin American and European countries, as well as Americans, who today can enjoy a city that has grown, matured and has a huge amount of exhibition spaces, cultural centers and museums. Galleries with a certain reputation could be counted on the fingers of one hand: the Cuban Meeting Point and Forma; and the American ones: Barbara Gillman and Virginia Miller; the latter is still working. Miami has undergone a drastic change in the last 30 years. Its physiognomy has varied, it has become a metropolis with world-class art fairs, such as Art Basel.<\/span><\/p>\n

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V\u00edctor G\u00f3mez, \u201cAlmost the End,\u201d Oil Monotype, 33.5 X 22.5 inches, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How does your work evolve until you reach the <\/b>monotypes<\/b><\/a>?<\/b><\/p>\n

From 1980 to 1986 I only painted. I wasn\u2019t doing that bad. It seems that being \u201cnew in town\u201d generated some curiosity, and I achieved an acceptable level of sale by my standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1986, at a meeting with friends, I met Tom\u00e1s Rodr\u00edguez, an old schoolmate. He had achieved certain economic success. He asked me how he could help me; I told him that my plans included acquiring an etching press, but that I still couldn\u2019t think about that. He told me to stop by his office the next day to pick up the check. I was paying him the loan for almost three years.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fortuitous event changed my artistic life definitely. I started working on my incipient monotypes on that press.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

V\u00edctor G\u00f3mez (note down those who doubt) is since then the only Cuban artist who has focused his work exclusively on that graphic modality, which in fact gives him a place worthy of consideration among us. But this would be nothing more than an anecdote if his monotypes did not have the level of artistic excellence they show, if his mark were not unmistakable within the field of Cuban abstraction, and if (this is for those who overvalue the contests) he would not have been recognized and awarded in multiple international events in these 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, our artist receives invitations to participate in top-level biennial and triennial exhibitions and competitions since his work gives them prestige. This graduate of the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, Havana (1963-67), has given workshops on the use of the technique in China, Miami and El Salvador. And he is a member of a considerable number of guild associations and institutions, such as the Florida Printmakers Society, International Graphic Art Foundation, International Print Triennial Society, Cracow; the Boston Printmakers, the Florida Printmakers Society, the Monotype Guild of New England…. And he always participates foremost as a Cuban artist, without further adjectives.<\/span><\/p>\n