RAFAEL LOPEZ RAMOS

-Gracia, Jorge, Entrevista para "Cuban Art outside Cuba". State University of New York at Buffalo, NY, 2006

Artist Statement

Since the mid 90s my art examines issues related to Cuban national identity, treasuring its fragments and tokens as a sort of palimpsests on which cubanes is re-inscribed over and over. In those Baroque compositions different iconographies (realistic representations of tropical fruits, drawings of Afro-Cuban religious symbols and tile designs) were juxtaposed and collaged onto abstract expressionist backgrounds, as transversally mapping the Cuban soul from a diasporic perspective and yielding a thread of diverse visual and semantic levels.

My recent work, integrates photography based images (often downloaded from the Internet) into quite painterly compositions; this approach somehow extends my scope to a moreuniversal quest on artistic languages themselves and the way they are being influenced by the increasing presence of digital images and technology in our world. The original photographic images are melted and 'translated' into the realm of Fine Arts through traditional painting supports and techniques in an “alchemical” process tending to estrange both classical and technological elements while aiming to lead to a totally new one.

¿Seremos como quién?
(diptico) acrílico & tinta / lienzo crudo, 36 1/2" x 37", 2006
Shall we be like who?
(diptych) acrylic & ink / unprimed canvas, 36 1/2" x 37", 2006