Douglas Argüelles’ drawings, large format paintings, objects and installations are linked by the notion of reality and historical and cultural processes. Argüelles perceives the work of art as a transition between the creative action and the created, motivating us to reach the region where language is exhausted and one is forced to replace it with emotion, with the senses. For the artist, “the idea of reality appears in my works as a kind of dissection. It is described by means of components such as time, space, the imaginary, the everyday, the existential. Rather than portraying some of these dimensions of reality, I try to catch what only explains itself as an image, once language is a limited tool to express its reality. If we can talk about beauty or illusion, it is precisely there, where language is exhausted as a tool.
Douglas Argüelles Cruz is a Professor of Drawing and Painting Department, Faculty of Fine Arts of the ISA. He is also a Member of the Department of Public Intervention Project (DIP).
In Cuba, his work has been shown at the Salon of Contemporary Cuban Art, City Hall, and collateral to the exhibition VII, VIII, IX, X and XI Biennial of Havana. Argüelles has made interventions in different areas of the country. He obtained prize of Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Salón de la Ciudad, 2003. Curated Prize 2007, Goldberg Variations, La Casona Gallery, Havana, Cuba. His works have been exhibited at the Centre for Development of Visual Arts; La Casona Gallery; Havana Gallery; Hispanic-American Center of Culture, Cuba; Contemporary Art Center Wilfredo Lam; Higher Institute of Art, Havana, Cuba. Outside of Cuba his work was featured at PAMM, Péres Art Museum of Miami, Florida; Patricia and Philip Frost Museum, Miami, Florida, Estados Unidos; Amadis Gallery, Madrid, Spain; Museum of Contemporary Art in Algeria; International Fair of Contemporary Art- Shanghai, China; Biennial of Contemporary Art- Portugal 2011. Obtained Residency Unlimited. Cuban Artist Fund. New York, United States; Scholarship Batiscafo (Triangle Art Trust and Gasworks England in Havana), 2008; Gilbert Brownstone Foundation Residency, Paris, France, 2012.
Select Permanent Collections: National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba; The Ron Brasch Collection, Colorado Spring Art Center, Colorado; Jorge Pérez Collection, Miami, Florida PAMM- Pérez Art Museum of Miami, Florida; The Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum, Miami; Galila Barzalai Collection, Belgica; Fine Arts Museum of Havana and institutions in Cuba, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland and Algeria.
Support: Duglas Arguelles’ residency is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund.
