Page 78 - PROTAGONIST-124

As a passionate collector of memorabilia from Cuban

history, he digs deep: he rejects the officialdom and

propaganda, and he opens the gates of his canvas to

contradictions, interweaving events and characters from

different contexts.

By definition, he is a painter and he uses colors and Cuba has been a thousand different things in its recent history.
paintbrushes; however, if we were to call him director, set First an island of sin and a garden of delights for Americans during
designer, or architect, we wouldn’t be that far off and we certainly Batista’s military dictatorship, then the training ground of the
wouldn’t be wrong. revolutionary dream; a Caribbean paradise that endured decades
There is always an observer in Ariel Cabrera Montejo’s of oppression from the embargo and Castro’s dictatorship. And
paintings: someone watching from the inside and also from the now, it has transformed into something else. Cuba changes its skin
outside. We look at one of his paintings and, at the same time, the and sheds it depending on the season, like the artwork of one of
figures animating it are looking at someone or something else. its sons who made his fortune in the United States, where many
The atmosphere is suspended, the tapestry comes to life with of his compatriots sought it out in vain. “I try to motivate him,”
stories and micro-stories. The sense of peacefulness is illusory. continues Mazzoli, “like I always do with young people. He’s a
The unease is subtle and palpable, conveyed by naked bodies, talent, an extremely nice, welcoming person. And he’s certainly an
eroticism, soldiers and acrobats, swimmers and bodies fluctuating artist for refined collectors. Cabrera Montejo assembles a theater
in an aquarium. You see the colors, you think of the nineteenth and paints it.”
century; then you notice the black and white and you perceive its And on the stage of this theater, perspective planes and
contemporary character. events intertwine and explode in a kaleidoscope of carefreeness
It’s the gaze of the voyeur; it’s the eyes of Ariel Cabrera and violence, sarcasm and amusement.
Montejo; it’s his vision of the world. Ariel Cabrera Montejo redesigns the history of Cuba, bringing
The artist observes Cuba’s history, combines contexts, it back to life, reviving it. “Although I have never made reference
images, photos, scenes from the past and the present. And he is to a historical event in particular,” he told Chiara Ianeselli during
always attentive to details: the fabrics (whether chiffon or tulle), the exhibition organized by the Mazzoli Gallery in Modena, “my
the lighting, the composition and balance of the figures. painting proposes the theme of the historical as mises-en-scène,
Ambiguous? Indeed. Lascivious? Also, at times. mixed, multi-temporal scenarios. For example, the role that
“He’s an extraordinary painter and a very bright kid,” says photography has played in graphic art, journalism, advertising,
Emilio Mazzoli, founder of the Mazzoli Gallery in Modena, which in the historical relations between Cuba and the United States,
will be the first to present a solo exhibition of the artist in Europe. specifically in the processes of formation of Cuba as a nation.”
“He belongs to the Cuban school; his technique is classical and Cabrera Montejo uses the technique of the masters of the past
the colors he chooses are traditional. His art is the story of the and innervates it with the freshness of the present, which can be
island itself.” found in his smaller watercolors as well as in his larger oil paintings.

76 Art Protagonist