Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
n painter.
Biography
Rodríguez Cárdenas was born in 1962 in Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, and completed his arts studies in 1983 at
Havana
Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).
He formed part of the René Portocarrero workshop, where he began to make a name for himself in
serigraphy
Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a Substrate (printing), substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen i ...
, drawing and painting. He became a key figure in the resurgence of criticism and of the arts movement at the time. His participation played a decisive role in the birth of the provisional group. From among the imagery created in the late 1980s, which questioned and made ironic the “revolutionary” state slogans, some of Rodríguez Cárdenas's proposals became iconic representations of his generation such as his
self-portrait
Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...
featuring him bare-chested, the skin painted like a brick wall, on which the words ”I am my home” are written; from his neck hangs a skeleton with a comic blurb that reads “I do not exist, only my intention”.
In Rodríguez Cárdenas's work,
parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
, humor and caricature tend away from coarseness, although they may confront the audience with what is vulgar in a society in crisis. His work invites the spectator to question reality, to see beyond the world of the official word imposed by a system that had become senseless. More than anyone,Exhibit Catalogue -Artistas Cubanos al Auxilio, by Aldo Mendez 9-30-06 he suffered
censorship
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
. In his case, it was not a conjured-up badge of honor that he pinned on himself to face banishment from his country.
From the time after he went into exile in
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
in the early 1990s until he finally settled in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, he focused his art, without renouncing his previous commitments, on the artistic quality of his subjects, of this designs. His art imparted his compositions with even more of their own particular, distinctive character than before.
During the next few years, Rodríguez Cárdenas held solo exhibits at Obra Reciente, Galeria Nina Menocal, Mexico; D.F., Carlos Cardenas, Galeria Ramis F. Barquet in
Monterrey
Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...
, Mexico; About the Blue Wall, Fredric Snitzer Gallery,
Coral Gables
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248.
Cora ...
,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
; ARCO 93 International Art Fair,
Madrid
Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
,
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
; and Pinturas, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Coral Gables.
Today his works are included in such major collections as the
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it ...
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana
The National Museum of Fine Arts of Havana (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana) in Havana, Cuba is a museum of fine arts that exhibits Cuban art collections from the colonial times up to contemporary generations.
History
It was founded o ...
in Havana.
Rodríguez Cárdenas lives and works in the New York area.