Yovany Enríquez believes that he has found the Cuban and Caribbean essence of his work in the marginal neighborhoods, on the outskirts of the city postcards, in the corners where - according to the artist - life is experienced in a more sincere way. "I am born and raised in those environments, coexisting with authentic identities and idiosyncrasies, in a peasant environment of guateques and serenades, surrounded by Afro-descendant cultures and religions," says Enríquez.
Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts "San Alejandro" (1992) and Bachelor of Education in the specialty of Art Instructor (2010), the trajectory of the Mayabequense reflects varied trends, nurtured by ethnic diversity, traditions and exploring a universe southern, stagnant, rural and coastal. This is how he captures it in each stroke, in each craft technique, in each installation ... This is how he experiences it when he presses the shutter of his camera or when he works on a performance, because Enríquez's mode of expression is not limited to drawing or painting. painting, but encompasses a wide range of artistic disciplines.
He also does not settle for his art being defined by a single aesthetic line or with a single message, but he always seeks to reinvent himself and explore new concepts. While his beginnings (1986-1990) refer to a time of technical experimentation and public interaction, from a perspective of attachment to life in his country; He was followed by a period - coinciding with the beginning of the 90s - in which he entered the allegories of power and war, precisely what the creator refers to as "a more aggressive stage of expression".
In the following years, he worked in other branches of plastic such as painting, engraving, photography, assemblage, installation and performance. Among the themes that inspired him during the first decades of the 21st century, ecology, customs, intimacy, utopias and Cuban cultural identity stand out, although in the last three years he has focused on drawing and painting with a colorist tendency. , romantic and medieval.
In defining his relationship with art, Yovany draws on a common response for those who love what they do. "Art is a way of life - he says - not only for artistic creation, but in any other form of coexistence and cognitive process". The essential basis of his pieces lies in stimulating emotions and sensory exchange with the environment that surrounds him. In addition, he confesses that he has never been able to build a work out of nothing, but that all are born from an experience, from knowing how to understand loneliness and deciphering his intuition.
After 35 years of career, more than 12 personal exhibitions and another 20 group exhibitions, the artist affirms that the formula to obtain an author's stamp consists in separating himself from snobbish tendencies, without ceasing to study and to be genuine.
"This path is a journey called" the work of life. " Sometimes we think that the summit is in an award, a trophy or a medal; These are just foundations of the path, which is enriched with perseverance and improvement. The masterpiece will always be the one to come, the one that haunts the artist's mind because he is not pleased, because when the process of creation is over, the road to the peak is over ”.
By: Mabel Torres, November 2021