Juan Brouwer (1973) did not choose the path of art that friends and family expected, being the son of an outstanding Cuban musician and composer. Although he dabbled in music and studied saxophone very quickly, he became convinced that he had not inherited the melodic abilities of his father and that in music matters he preferred to be a spectator.
The gift of some acrylic paintings and the invitation to visit galleries made him discover the world of plastic arts and take it as a means of expression and way of life. "From my first approach to painting, abstractionism as a style monopolized all my interest."
Large formats, reduced color palettes where warm tones and complementary contrasts take center stage, visual and tactile textures, associations with past works without being unconscious repetitions, are hallmarks that distinguish Juan Brouwer's pictorial work. “At present my creative process does not a priori contain an external reference, a fact that in my opinion is closer to pure abstraction; it is about painting by and from painting ”.
“The act of painting provokes in me a kind of trance - he confesses - where only the laws of composition and color intervene, a journey to the sense of the interior. It is at this moment where I feel the freedom and spiritual peace, which leads me to the final result, from chance and containment the final work spontaneously forms before my eyes ".
According to the artist, in this process of creation, the abstract is transcendent, since it acts as a catalyst for emotions in a complex and dizzying world, where human beings are saturated with images. For this reason, he does not propose to offer the public lines of interpretation "polysemy is richer," he says.
As a constant student of plastic arts Juan Brouwer recognizes the importance of revisiting the exponents of abstractionism and being attentive to the new ways of doing that are handled in the world, "after 100 years of this manifestation, only those who know how to innovate from already done ”.
With this premise, he recently ventured into digital art (NFTs), a novel alternative that broadens the horizons of visual arts. In his proposals his painting and his music come together harmoniously, like a kind of collage, giving the public a sensory spectacle.
“In these clips, which are about a minute long, what I try to do is play with the colors and textures of the main work, duplicate the frames, overlap one another and change their tones. The NFTs could be the end result of the work if I was willing to continue working on it ”.
Freedom of creation is a characteristic that abstractionism shares with Jazz, that is why the artist relies on this musical genre to consolidate the message. The melody of the flamenco cajon, played by the virtuoso Cuban musician Ruy Adrián López-Nussa, together with the versatile textures and colors, invite the viewer to action, abandon all inactive and face new paths.
Juan Brouwer declares that his foray into this medium is instinctive, since he knows little about the system in which it develops, however his early works have been liked by critics, contemporaries and the public, an effect that motivates him to continue experimenting. “The world is heading into the digital age at a dizzying pace, and I believe that NFTs offer endless creative possibilities,” he says.
In a scenario where any user is capable of creating audiovisual content and archiving it under the title of digital art, where postmodernity has blurred all limits, where commodification prevails over talent and sacrifice, Juan Brouwer's NFTs are like a fresh breeze leaving see that there are still hands committed to the good work of the visual arts.
By Naimy Herrera, November 2021