Carlos Rodriguez Cardenas

Carlos Rodriguez Cardenas is one of the most relevantfact|date=January 2008 "Cuban" painter of the Generation of the 80s.

Biography

Carlos was born in 1962 in "Sancti Spiritus", Villa Clara and completed his art studies in 1983 in Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).

He went to form part of the René Portocarrero workshop, where he begins to make a name for himself in the areas of serigraphy, drawing and painting becoming a key figure in the resurgence of criticism and of the arts movement at the time. His participation plays a decisive role in the birth of the so-called provisional group. From among the imagery created in the late 1980’s, which questioned and made ironic the “revolutionary” state slogans, some of his proposals became iconic representations of his generation such as his photograph featuring his bare-chested self-portrait, the skin painted like a brick wall, on which the words” I am my ball sack” are written; from his neck hangs a skeleton with a comic blurb that reads “I do not exist, only my ballsack”.

In Carlos’s work, parody, humor and caricature never tend towards coarseness, although they may confront us with what is vulgar in a society in crisis. He invites the spectator to question reality, to see beyond the world of the official word imposed by a system that had been becoming senseless, with absolute ingenuity. More than anyone [Exhibit Catalogue -Artistas Cubanos al Auxilio, by Aldo Mendez 9-30-06] , he suffered censorship, in his case not a conjured-up badge of honor which he pinned on himself to face banishment from his country.

From the time of this first stop after going into exile in Mexico in the early 1990s until he finally settles in New York, his painting, without completely renouncing his previous commitments embarks on a course that elevates the artistic quality of his figures, of this designs, heightening its exquisiteness and good taste, imparting his compositions with even more of their own particular, distinctive character than they had before. The ornamental the geometric and kitsch cease to be indispensable allies of the message becoming part of a process.

During the next few years he has solo exhibits such are Obra Reciente, Galeria Nina Menocal, Mexico, D.F., Carlos Cardenas, Galeria Ramis F. Barquet, Monterrey, Mexico and in 1993 About the Blue Wall, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Coral Gables, FL and ARCO 93 International Art Fair, Madrid, Spain followed by Pinturas, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Coral Gables, FL.

He participated in many exhibits in Latin America, Europe, and the United States of America. Some examples are: Patria o Muerte: Carlos Cardenas, Castillo de la Real Fuerza, La Habana, catalog with essay, Antonio Eligio (Tonel), the III Bienal de La Habana. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, catalog, No Man is an Island, Porin Taidenuseo, Findland.(traveled to Palffy Palace, Viena and Muscamok (Budapest), catalog with essays by Marketta Sappala, Gerardo Mosquera, Osvaldo Sanchez and Antonio Eligio (Tonel), Kuba, o.k. Stadtische Kunsthalia, Dusseldorf,Germany catalog with essays by Hurgen Harten, Gerardo Mosquera and Osvaldo Sanchez, The Nearest Edge of the World: Art and Cuba Now, Main Gallery Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, USA (traveled to the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York), catalog with essay by Kellie Jones, Gerardo Mosquera, and Rachel Weiss, Los Cubanos Llegaron Ya, Ninart, Centro de Cultura, Mexico, D.F., Los Hijos de Guillermo Tell. Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela, (traveled to the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia), catalog with essay by Gerardo Mosquera, and Ante America. Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, (traveled to Bogotá, Colombia, Caracas, Venezuela, Queen's Museum, NYC, California, L.A. and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Costa Rica), catalog with essay by Gerardo Mosquera.

Today his works are included in such major collections as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the Peter Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, the Museo Provincial de Santa Clara, Villa Clara, andMuseo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana.

See sample works- [http://www.cubaartny.org/pages/artists/CarlosCardenas/work3.html]

Carlos left Cuba in 1991 and currently lives and works in the New York area.

References