Kendall Art Cultural Center

 

Zaida del Río Resina Ámbar

 

OPENING: Friday, Jun 21, 2019

6:00PM-11PM

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Niña que corre descalza bajo las ramas de un bosque mágico y encantado, con muslos de escurridiza gacela. Baila, pinta, escribe y ama. Ella misma es uno de sus pájaros/mujeres que ha sorteado todas las trampas. Su obra es un talismán que a los que la amamos nos libra del espanto…. Alberto Lauro

 

Zaida del Río (b. Las Villas, Cuba, 1954). Painter, draftwoman, illustrator, engraver, ceramic decorator, mural painter and poet. She graduated from National School of Art (Havana,1974), Higher Institute of Art (Havana 1987) and Fine Arts School in Paris (1989). She has exhibited her work in Brazil, Cuba, Spain, United States, France, Italy, Japan, Martinica and Mexico, among other countries. Her works have been present at all editions of Havana Biennial, the Engraving Biennial (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador) Sao Paulo Biennial, Cairo Biennial and the Biennial of the Caribbean (Santo Domingo). She has been awarded with Gold Medal. First Prize of Painting. Biennial of El Cairo, Egypt (1993), Alejo Carpentier Medal (1994) and Third Prize of Painting. Biennial of TENRI, Japan (1998).

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Zaida is one of Cuba’s most respected living female artists today. She gathers inspiration from her most profound desires for an equitable world in balance with Mother Nature. Dancing figures, in which femininity is a principle element, navigate through dissimilar worlds and universes. The skill and grace of her brush take over her shapes, with a combination of spirituality and hedonism that become melded into one.  The portrayal of women, transformed into birds at one point of her creative activity, the world of Afro-Cuban religion Santeria, and the luxuriant tropical vegetation, all constitute distinctive motifs in paintings where the almost impressionistic brushstrokes are combined with sketches of strong or thin filigree-like brushstrokes.