Artist Name: Alejandro Campins
Residency Dates: February – March
Born: 1981
Hometown: Manzanillo, Cuba
Lives & Works: Havana, Cuba
URL: http://www.galleriacontinua.com/artist/146/artpiecesBesides his solo show Lapse (2016) at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, Campins has had multiple solo exhibitions at galleries in Spain and Cuba and has been featured in numerous international group exhibitions, including : 2015, Servando Gallery, Havana, Cuba; 2015, Les Moulins Galleria Continua, Boissy Le Châtel, France; 2015, Q & A the IDB Cultural Center Gallery in Washington, DC; 2013, “Cuba Contemporaine. Arte de la grande ile des Caraibes”, Le Centre culturel du Manoir, Cologny, Geneva, CH; 2012, “MEETING Havana Cultura: CHAPTER I // GULLIVER”, Freies Museum, Berlin, Germany; 2009, “Inside confluences, the second edition of Contemporary Cuban Art” at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, New Mexico (2009); 2008, “Far Far Away”, Co-Lab, Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2012, Campins work was featured at the Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, Havana , the 11th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba, the 12th Cairo Biennale, Egypt (2010), and Portugal Arte 10 EDP biennial, Lisbon (2010). Campins was a finalist for the Farber Foundation’s inaugural Young Cuban Artist of the Year award in 2015.
Education: 1996-2000, Academia Profesional de Artes Plásticas “El Alba” Holguín,; 2009, Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Facultad de Artes Plásticas, La Habana, Cuba.
Bio / Statement:
In January 2016, the young Cuban artist Alexandro Campins’ had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Sean Kelly Gallery, presenting works “exclusively focused on the Cuban landscape. Campins ‘s practice is informed by a singular, painterly vision. Ambitiously drawing on history, architecture and the collective memory of his home country, Campins mixes media — oil, watercolor, pencil — to create hauntingly evocative, atmospheric paintings inhabiting a metaphysical space between reality and fiction. His enigmatic canvases allude to the anachronistic poetry and surrealist beauty of Cuba’s changing cultural landscape. “
When asked about this new work, Campins stated, “I am interested in the idea of impermanence and how it manifests itself in nature and its relationship with architecture. The rural and urban landscape reflect the mental state of society, in these works I approach scenarios which for me have an “anonymous” aspect, sites that have lost their identity and express disinterest, transformation and the failures of ideologies.”
Support: Alejandro Campins’ residency is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund.
