Creating in multiple forms and concepts is the passion of young visual artist Adriel Pérez Labañino, a native of Guantánamo in the east of the country, where the exuberant natural environment had a great influence on his childhood.
My grandmother’s dovecotes, the immense garden surrounding the house, cultivated and cared for by our own hands; bathing in the rivers, exploring the forests, climbing trees, contemplating and experiencing creation in all its forms left an existential imprint on my sensibility that remains to this day," recalled the painter in an interview with this edition of CubaPLUS Guyana.
At the age of seven, leafing through a book in the school library, he discovered Degas’ Blue Dancers; that marvelous discovery translated into a flood of drawings and watercolors that caught the attention of his father, who encouraged and continues to support that visual electric shock that turned into a profession.
After graduating in Painting from the Professional Academy of Visual Arts of Guantánamo in 2006, he has not stopped studying and enriching himself with the knowledge that art provides him. So much so that in 2010hestudiedLithographyatthe Experimental Graphic Workshop of Havana and in 2017, Curatorship, Museography and Assembly, through the New York Independent Culture Project.
Each piece of work is an experience for him: &During the course of life we accumulate pleasant and unpleasant experiences (all valuable), the same happens with art. In my case it is in the means and not in the end where I find pleasure. It is in front of the blank media ready to become art where I find my favorite work." Adriel Pérez has participated in both personal and collective exhibitions. His most recent personal are: 2017 Naturaleza Abstracta, Galería Eliseo Osorio, Baracoa, Cuba; 2012 Litografías, Galería Antografías, Guantánamo, Cuba, and in 2002 Paisajes, Catedral Santa María, Miami, United States. Collective exhibitions include 2022 Habana Erótica, Mansión Castillo, Havana, Cuba; 2021 XLIII Jornada Nacional de Literatura y Artes Plásticas Regino E. Boti, Guantánamo, Cuba; 2019 Punto de Giro, Galería Antografías, Guantánamo, Cuba, and 2018 Arte de Cuba, University of Sarasota, United States.
Faced with a question about how he would categorize his style, he commented: &Categorizing in the present a piece that is still in development can be very risky. I prefer to leave that to time. Now one feels a strong impact of modernity, and that leaves a visible mark on the work, but I prefer to speak of creative freedom rather than modernity or styles. Labels are relative, that’s why I prefer to define myself as a curious being, a vicious maverick of creation itself."
The work of this artist, a member of the CubaPLUS Collection, can also be found in private collections in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Namibia, Singapore, New Zealand and Japan.
Phone:+53 5504 8113
@adrielperezl
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