The Cuban Arts Group

Studio Spotlight: Damián Pozo

In this week’s edition of Studio Spotlight, we visit the studio of artist Damián Pozo in Havana.

Reflecting on his practice, the artist explains that his work examines the standardization and manipulation of collective imaginaries, questioning how these constructions influence the behavior and development of communities. Through striking visual compositions, Pozo draws from popular and everyday icons, recurring objects, archetypal characters, social media imagery, and forms of collective entertainment. Appropriating the visual and conceptual qualities that allow these symbols to shape public perception—whether through color, narrative, or political and social associations—he combines pictorial and installation-based techniques to explore the tensions between mass culture, ideology, and contemporary experience.

Born in Havana in 1999, Pozo graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro and the Higher Institute of Art (ISA). He currently serves as a professor at the National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro. His artistic trajectory includes five solo exhibitions, among them Estéticos integrados at Galería La Nave in 2025, as well as participation in more than ten group exhibitions.

Images and texts: Courtesy of the artist

Dúo René Francisco-Ponjuán
Havana, Cuba, 1986-1996
René Francisco Rodríguez, b. Holguín, Cuba, 1960; resides in Madrid, Spain
Eduardo Ponjuán, b. Pinar del Río, Cuba, 1956; resides in Havana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain
Arte (Art)
1994
Mixed media on canvas, metal, wood, glass and repurposed soda cans
12 x 10 x ¾  in. (30.5 x 27 cm) each canvas and 12 x 4 x 4 in. (30.5 x 10 x 10 cm) each lamp

Eduardo Ponjuán and René Francisco worked as a creative duo for a decade. They made art that stood out in the crisis following the decline and fall of the socialist bloc in the early 1990s, a time when Cuban art delved into self-reflexive agony trying to express the challenges on the horizon.
 
In Arte (Art), the letters appear to glow and flicker, creating the trompe-l’oeil of a neon sign. Lacking any electric source, the only possible light is represented by dual chismosas―handmade kerosene lamps of repurposed materials used in dimly lit Cuban homes during the routine power outages of the early 1990s.
 
The work, part of a larger installation titled Dream, Art, and Market, represents the power of art to enlighten, as a beacon of promise surging through the physical and spiritual darkness of its time.

✍️Gabriela Azcuy and David Horta
📚Published in “Under the Spell of the Palm Tree: The Rice Collection of Cuban Art” (p.p. 232-235). Madrid, Spain: TCAG, 2025

Studio Spotlight: Ismael Olazabal

In this week’s Studio Spotlight, we visit the studio of Ismael Olazabal in Havana, Cuba. Reflecting on his practice, the artist states:

“Through intervened archives and self-generated materials, I dismantle dominant visual narratives in order to rehistoricize working-class memory. From a dialectical and generational perspective, I move between the historical and the affective, activating stories left untold by centers of power. My work draws on a range of techniques, including painting, drawing, AI software, soft sculpture, and donated objects.”

Olazabal’s work engages critically with the politics of memory and representation, foregrounding marginalized histories through material and conceptual strategies. His practice constructs a layered visual language in which archival intervention becomes both a tool of resistance and a means of reimagining collective identity.

About the artist: Ismael Olazabal (Camagüey, 1997) is a visual artist trained in architecture. His recent career has been marked by significant recognition within the Cuban art scene, including the Antonia Eiriz Creation Grant (AHS, 2026), a collateral award from The Cuban Arts Group at Prisma 11 (Havana, 2026), and multiple prizes at the Salón Gestos, Salón de la Ciudad, and the Malayerba Young Art Competition. His work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions across Havana, Camagüey, and Santiago de Cuba, and in 2026 he presented his first solo exhibition, Lo prometido, at Casa México, Havana.

Images: Courtesy of the artist

Studio Spotlight: Darián Gallardo

In this section of Studio Spotlight, we visit the studio of Havana-based artist Darián Gallardo. His practice begins with an attentive analysis of his immediate surroundings, foregrounding the poetics of everyday life. Gallardo focuses on people, places, and objects—often removed from their original contexts and reimagined within new scenarios.

Working primarily through painting, he employs portraiture as a means to heighten expressivity, frequently turning to exaggeration and the fragmentation of form. His approach reveals an analytical dimension, delving into the psychological undercurrents of his subjects. For Gallardo, painting expands rather than limits expressive possibilities, intersecting with other media while generating new visual outcomes.

Darián Gallardo (b. March 1999, Cienfuegos, Cuba) began his artistic training at the Escuela Provincial de Arte Benny Moré, where he specialized in painting. In 2019, he enrolled at the Universidad de las Artes (ISA), pursuing a degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, with a focus on easel painting restoration. He has participated in exhibitions and initiatives such as Post-it, MALAYERBA, and PRISMA, aimed at increasing the visibility of emerging artists. Beyond his studio practice, he has also worked in scenography, contributing to the production Lección Fallida by the dance-theater company Persona Colectivo.

Images and text: Courtesy of the artist

Prisma 11, Perfil. Premio Colateral de la Fundación The Cuban Arts Group (TCAG)

Como parte de la colaboración con el equipo de ArteMorfosis y el concurso Prisma 11, Perfil, el equipo de TCAG, tras un exhaustivo análisis de las propuestas presentadas, destaca la alta calidad de los concursantes y su capacidad para expandir los límites del retrato. Se ha valorado especialmente la coherencia entre el discurso conceptual del artista y su resolución material, así como la capacidad de proyectar estas inquietudes en el ecosistema cultural actual.

Nuestro equipo ha decidido otorgar el premio colateral The Cuban Arts Group (TCAG), de manera compartida y a partes iguales, a los siguientes artistas y obras:

* Darián Gallardo, por la obra “Malestar en la cultura”.
* Ismael Olazabal, por la obra “Patrimonio”.
* Héctor Daniel Palacios, por la obra “Sibila”.

Desde TCAG, celebramos cómo estas tres obras, desde perspectivas diversas —la crítica institucional, la memoria compartida y la sacralización de lo ordinario—, logran capturar la esencia del “Perfil” contemporáneo, reafirmando la vigencia del retrato como un diálogo vivo entre el autor, la obra y su contexto digital y físico.

Studio Spotlight: Daniela Porto

This week, we step into the studio of Daniela Porto in Havana. Her painting operates within the realms of Symbolism and Pop Surrealism (often associated with the Lowbrow art movement), employing a highly stylized, almost illustrative aesthetic to explore themes of suffering and spiritual and emotional awakening. Porto deliberately appropriates classical Christian iconography, recontextualizing it within a deeply personal, surrealist narrative.

On her work, the artist comments:
“My work speaks about what hurts, but through the colors of what is alive. My pieces are often inhabited by symbolic female figures, dwelling in dreamlike atmospheres where pain, anger, and rebirth coexist after the soul’s symbolic death. I primarily work with acrylic on canvas, constructing universes where emotional pain is dressed in bright, sensual, and sometimes disturbingly beautiful tones. Each piece is a world in itself, where the characters embody a feeling that envelops everything around them. I am interested in revealing fragility, anger, emptiness, and also the power that emerges from all of it, without falling into darkness or gloom. I do not seek to represent suffering as something dirty or terrifying, but rather as a territory that can also be mystical, luminous, and deeply human.

Daniela Porto is a 22-year-old artist based in Havana, Cuba. She studies Cinematography at the Faculty of Audiovisual Media Arts (FAMCA), though her engagement with the visual arts began earlier through painting. During her adolescence, she attended drawing workshops and later continued to develop her practice in a self-taught manner.

Images: Courtesy of the artist

Palabras del crítico y curador Orlando Hernández para la segunda edición del evento La Huella Múltiple, La Habana, 1999.

*Texto cortesía de la multimedia La Huella Múltiple, a propósito del 30 aniversario del evento.

Permiso para imprimirlo todo. Orlando Hernández Palabras a la segunda edición del evento La Huella Múltiple, La Habana, 1999.