The Dark Theatre: Carlos Estevez
May 4 - June 15
While Estevez's work is often identifiably Cuban in imagery, materials and techniques, it always connects to the larger world. This exhibition of marionette-styled figures and machines is drawn in white, with occasional additions of primary colors, on black paper. The twenty new works in this exhibition continue Estevez's probing into the inner reaches of life. The Dark Theater is a search into another reality, the reality of the spirit. The Boston Globe called his recent exhibition at Mass Art an "extraordinary show" and referred to the figure drawings, comprised of dots connected by lines, as being "particularly cosmic". The Boston Herald said that "Carlos Estevez's vision as a Cuban artist defies tradition. He celebrates the artist as a forward-looking genius, above national whims."
For Estevez, the theater represents "the world in which we live, the spaces in which we act out our existence. The marionettes are us, our strings of birth and death, days and nights, cycles and transitions of nature, society and its rules, destiny and its purpose. The dark is the territory of the soul- dreams and thoughts. Paradoxically, it is the space where the human light comes from."
Estevez was born in Havana in 1969. He graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana in 1992. Since 1995, his work has been in group shows in Tel Aviv, Beijing, Los Angeles, Temp (AZ), Madrid, Bilboa, London, and Moscow. He has represented Cuba at Bienal de la Habana numerous times and has been chosen for international biennials in Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela
El Doloroso Proceso De Las Mutaciones (The painful process of mutations), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 30" x 46", $2000
La Fe Es Un Puente Que Se Apoya En Una Sola Orilla, 2001, (Faith is a bridge that is supported by only one shore), Mixed media on paper, 30" x 95", $3000
Las Mujeres, Los Disfraces Y Otros Enigmas (The woman, the costumes and other enigmas), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
Urbanización Humana (Human urbanization), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
Metamorfosis (Metamorphosis), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
El Coleccionista (The collector), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000 - SOLD
La vida y sus implicaciones (Life and its implications), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
Los Faros (Lighthouse), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
Gulliver Enamorado (Gulliver in love), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 46" x 30", $2000
Eclipses (Eclipses), 2001, Mixed media on paper, $2500
Manual Bélico Del Amor (warlike manual of love), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 30" x 46", $2000
Como Los Arboles (As a trees), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
Dirigible (Dirigible), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
Amphitheatrum, 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
Posible Explicación Del Coleccionismo (A possible explanation of collectionism), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
El Elegido (The chosen), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
La Elección (The choice), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
La Invención Del Destino (The invention of destiny), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 42" x 30", $2300
El Hacedor De Puentes (The bridge's maker), 2001, Mixed media on paper, 30" x 42", $2300
Los Opuestos (The opposites), 1998 Wood, string and glass eyes, Variable dimension, $5000