SOUTH by Carlos Quintana

Lima: The individual exhibit South (Sur) by Cuban artist Carlos Quintana will be inaugurated this May 3 at the Enlace Contemporary Art Gallery of this city in the presence of the artist.

A promotional note sent to our editorial staff says the institution has organized the display with the support of Citibank, Wa Lok Restaurant and Trapiche Argentina.

The exhibition consists of twelve middle- and big-size oils in which the artist reflects the main conflicts of the contemporary man compelling us to reflection. A painting where customs, attitudes, conditionings, symbols, mixtures, human irreverence surrounded by its daily life can be found. Quintana unveils the challenges of men threatened by cyclic and heartrending crises and turmoil. On his canvas lie a heavy load of intense emotions, truths that we indirectly admit, beings full of ambiguousness and eroticism. 

Born in Havana in1966, Quintana studied at the Design Institute and graduated from the San Alejandro Academy of Havana, Cuba. Since 1987, he has shown his work in personal and collective exhibitions in important galleries and cultural centers of the Americas, Europe and Asia, in countries like: Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, United States, Canada, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and China. He currently lives and works back and forth in Madrid and Havana. 

About his work French critic François Vallée recently wrote: “Carlos Quintana has the gift of the eye, he paints what our shaded eye cannot see, the other side behind the curtain of the eyelids. His paintings directly touch the nervous system, raise doubts, give a disturbing feeling of mystery. Petrified on its sovereign immobility, bathed in the dark clarity of his sanctuaries, those characters (through which the underlying animal is expressed) look like if they were from another time, or from a suspended time, subtracted from gravity, levitating, floating, and watching us, facing us, challenging us, making us obsessed.”

In issue 8 of the Arte por Excelencias magazine (featuring a painting by Carlos Quintana on the cover), Cuban critic Orlando Hernandez published a text inspired on a literary work (See link) where he recreates the imaginary of the creator.

South, in Avenida Pardo and Aliaga 676, San Isidro, Lima (from May 3 to June 2, 2011)

Source: Press release sent by Silvana Vargas-Machuca