Carlos Luna

Gallery Affiliations: Heather James Fine Art

Region: South

I am a contemporary artist who bases his work on tradition.

My need to express myself comes from memories of growing up in a little rural town, which is full of the colorful stories and personalities that are only found in country places.

I work with oil on canvas and drawings on Amate paper. My drawings are the black and white interpretation of my life’s journey, while my paintings acquire an apparent happiness because of their coloring.

There are two personages who are characteristic of my work: “El Guajiro”, who is a peasant and, the true hero of Cuban national life, and “The Rooster-Man”, the magical, mythical, animal side of this Guajiro. These characters provide an ironic undercurrent in my work that simultaneously questions and sublimates Cuban history and, therefore, my own.

It is my desire to show that it is possible to establish a personal vocabulary in the traditional visual arts— painting and drawing—that is as contemporary as any other expressive medium. Each time my work looks more to the past, to the origins that serve as a bridge to my own cultural past, it leads me more into my future.