CubaPLUS Magazine

It’s a matter of pride for the citizens of Ciego de Avila that an artist of the magnitude of Nelson Domínguez Cedeño is closely related to the institutional framework of culture in our province (Ciego de &Aávila, central region of Cuba).

During his artistic career he has received a large number of distinctions and awards, among which the National Arts Award Plásticas 2009 a highlight, as well as his work in Ciego de &Aávila with the objective of bringing his art to every corner of the city and encouraging new generations to create.

This is why this tribute is essential to someone whose with his work contributes to the preservation and dissemination of the cultural heritage of our country and province, to the training of young artists, to the enrichment of the culture and the creation of works in everyday spaces. Nelson Dominguez is a faithful exponent of the values and identity of Cuba, its people, its customs and its history. Today we have the imprint of this artist’s work in varied murals in the province of Ciego de &Aávila in hospitals, parks, boulevard, where one can appreciate his art and his desire to teach us that culture should not be just an aspiration, but a basic instrument of self-growth as an essential basis for a society. His spiritual closeness with the artistic work of our town makes him worthy of the Illustrious Guest status of the City, but more than a guest, he is a son because of his momentum, effort and dedication.

In May 2011, Nelson Domínguez established his work with Projects of Ciego de &Aávila such as Guayza, dedicated to the design and manufacture of textile garments, and Pauyet, a sociocultural project dedicated to the recycling work with silver and alpaca cutlery, broken, dull and cut up, turning it into small or medium format sculptural silverwork and jewelry. From the merger of these three creators’ interests, under the auspices of the subsidiary of the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets of Ciego de &Aávila and the Cuban Association of Artisan Artists, arose the design and production of the Triad collection, presented during the personal exhibition by Nelson Domínguez, Self-Portrait, and in many other settings in the country.

Long ago, Nelson Domínguez exceeded the highest levels of American plastic arts, his style contains very personal qualities. From his finished and technically almost perfect painting what emerges at a glance is the mastery of the painter’s trade, and the perception of a particular and exclusive appreciation of the surrounding world. From there, those strange officiants; the myth and the fantasy of the cults to the divinities and spirits, almost palpable once there is sensual and hallucinating in the syncretic, Christian and African religious rites, on the almost impalpable footprint of the indigenous.

The prolific career of this artist, glass craftsman, painter, engraver, breaks into pieces the straitjacket that can signify the conventional limits between one manifestation and another, and understands art as a great laboratory equally conducive to perfecting the results of a well studied and applied formula, as to casual spells.