BIO & STATEMENT 

Yuniel Delgado Castillo (Havana, 1984)

Cuban visual artist currently residing in Madrid, he is considered the enfant terrible of new Cuban painting. A graduate with honors from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts (2011) , specializing in painting, he has established a prestigious reputation on the Cuban art scene, both on and off the island. His principal virtues are the honesty and passion with which he approaches painting and the act of painting itself. Those who know him can attest to a volcanic and incredibly prolific subjectivity that constantly works and produces great works. His restless nature and his emotional predisposition toward the medium have made him a tremendously versatile and energetic artist. Hence his constant explorations in the field of different techniques, media, and languages ​​such as engraving, sculpture, installation, and drawing, which are the grammar of painting where he displays all his power. From the beginning of his career to the present, his vocation for large formats has been evident, which has had an impact on the prefiguration of important mural and installation projects, including environmental sculpture, and even the occasional performative gesture that certifies his commitment and levels of complicity with the aesthetic itself, beyond even any social approval. He has always manifested extreme freedom during (and in the face of) the creative process, which leads him to a great emancipation and places him in a zone of ethical and emotional comfort with himself. Spontaneity is, without a doubt, one of his strengths and at the same time becomes an axiomatic key to understanding his methodology and way of working. Most of the time—or almost always—he dispenses with sketches or previous ideas, lest they hinder that clean (uncontaminated) relationship that exists between the act of making and the blank canvas. Like all artists, he is driven by an obsession with the pursuit of his own style, pushing the boundaries of classification and reductionism in art in general to deliver a genuine, sensitive, and truthful output. This, without a doubt, he has achieved with great effort and enviable tenacity. While still a student at the renowned Academy, he held his first solo exhibition at the Centro Pro-Danza in 2006, attracting critical attention for the irreverent nature of his work. In 2013, he traveled to the United States as part of a group exhibition at the Aicon Gallery in New York. Coinciding with this exhibition, he held other presentations until moving to Boston to open his studio as an artist. Despite his success and projects, inclement weather forced him to settle in South Florida, where he opened his own studio-gallery in December 2014. He was fortunate, at that time, to have been nominated for the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO) Fellowship and Commission Program in Miami. He has also been awarded residency programs and group exhibitions in Naples, Italy, in 2016, at the Pam Museum, and in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2019. He has also lectured on his art at the Roberson Art Gallery at Pennsylvania State University. He has participated in several auctions and art fairs, such as those in Florence and Denmark. His work can be found in public and private collections, especially in Germany, the United States, Canada, Italy, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, and other countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Statement

I conceive of art as nothing more than a space of emancipation and freedom, a place where I can experience catharsis, where I feel fully alive, and where I can construct myself as a subject in every moment. My work responds to that need and that principle. I work every day guided by an inner and intense desire to communicate. That, as an artist, is my primary objective. It is what I truly believe will give meaning to my legacy. It may seem like an exaggeration or an outmoded gesture, but there isn't a moment when I'm not creating, thinking, and creating stories. It's a kind of supreme feeling, a necessity and demand for my soul. Painting and drawing have been, in this sense, my two greatest allies. Especially painting, with which I establish a very profound dialogue that at some point surpasses me. Sketches and notes have always seemed like prosthetic structures, convalescent frames. I prefer spontaneity, letting myself be carried away by the energy dictated by my soul and that disposed by the universe. Through this path, I aspire to encode a genuine and different body of work, with high doses of personal sensitivity in which the collective subject finds its own identifications. It can be said that it is a kind of trance between a blank mind and the intensity of the soul, resulting in a singular work, notably influenced by figurative expressionism, infused with contemporaneity and informed by the reality that surrounds me. I try to explore within the context of my own limits and question, if anything, the tyranny of classifications, which is why I ignore labels regarding painting. I only do one thing: paint. My production results from a process of arduous laboriousness that, moreover, has led me to moments of extreme physical exhaustion when faced with the dimensions of the formats in which I usually develop my pieces. The strength and dynamism required to create large canvases or charcoals are fundamental to achieving an aesthetic finish and technical quality that denotes the existence of a work that is strong and organic in its relationship of content and form. I consider myself an anthropologist and an artist at the same time. I place on the canvas, in each work, in each unmolded stone, countless unknowns that vary in meaning, meaning, and response, according to my inner dictates. Even without pausing to think about what I want to write or point out in my works, they capture words or phrases from languages ​​I've never read, mathematical equations that might be incoherent to a scholar, as well as strange, perhaps surreal, symbols that sometimes resemble ancient symbolism. That's why I always affirm that my work is in constant evolution and growth: in an endless search for answers and enlightenment. My work goes beyond the politics of the art market, because I strive every day to continue being a creative subject, honest with my discourse, and an eternal lover of art.

CONTEMPORARY ART FAIRS AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS.

2022 . Lost Paradise. Exhibition of Cuban artists. The Clock House / Matadero. Madrid, Spain. . Various Talents. Select group show. Algeciras Museum, Nando Arguelles Art Projects. Cadiz, Spain. 2019 . The Cuban Collection. 508 Gallery. Chelsea, England. 2017 . Cheers. Provincial Center of Plastic Arts. Havana, Cuba. 2016 . The Change. Pan Museum. Naples, Italy. . Selection of Drawings. Jade Museum. Costa Rica. 2015 . Erasing Borders. Hub Robenson Galleries. Pennsylvania State University. USA . The Wall. Del Castillo Art Studio. Hialeah, FL, USA. . Uniting Colors. Doral City Hall. Florida. USA. . The Hispanic Hand. Milander Art Gallery. Hialeah, FL, USA. 2014 . Pop up. Art Festival. Miami Lakes. FL, USA. . Art Auction to Support the Fight Against AIDS. Ralopsia Gallery. Boston, USA. 2013. The Wall. Aicon Gallery. New York, USA. The Wall. Molina Art Gallery. Miami, FL. USA. Cuban Art Festival. Children's Museum. New York, USA. Convergences. Visual Dialogue of Five Cuban Painters. Del Castillo Art Studio. Hialeah, FL, USA. The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters. Karura Art Center Museum. Vigo, Spain. Cuban Art, World Art Exhibition. Walferdange Gallery, Luxembourg. Future. Collateral to the 12th Havana Biennial. Havana, Cuba. 2012. Erotic Art. Wilfredo Lam Center. Havana, Cuba. Traveling exhibition around the art galleries of the Vedado neighborhood. Havana, Cuba. He Who Has Wings. Tropical Gardens. Havana, Cuba. Social Imaginaries. Collateral to the XI Havana Biennial. Havana, Cuba. 2011. Faces of the City. Model of Havana. Havana, Cuba. 2009. Between Friends. Mariano Rodriguez Art Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 2008. Exhibition to celebrate the anniversary of the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. Havana, Cuba. 2007. Inconsistencies. Romerillo Cultural Center, Havana, Cuba. Exhibition of local artists. Jaimanitas Cultural Center. Havana, Cuba. Artistic Residencies 2016. Naples, Italy for the realization of the collective exhibition The Change, Pam Museum. 2019. Copenhagen, Denmark for the realization of the exhibition The Arrival of the Common Man, Sapere Aude Gallery. Fairs and Biennials 2020. Art Heming, Copenhagen, Denmark. 2019. XII Biennial of art and design, Florence, Italy. 2022. Kunst for alle, lokomotivvaerkstedet, Copenhagen, Denmark. Other 2015. Cuban Art Conference, Pennsylvania State University, USA.

INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS 

2023 Carnación Nando Arguelles Art Project, exhibition hall of the Royal Prison of Tarifa 2022 . Trance. Contrast Gallery. Barcelona, ​​Spain. . Balance der Koexistenz (Balance of Coexistence), Heinssingart Gallery. Lübeck, Germany. Lost connections. Sapere Aude Gallery. Copenhagen, Denmark 2021 . Renacer. CAV Museum La Neomudejar. Madrid, Spain. . Katheiro. Herrero de Tejada Gallery. Madrid, Spain. 2020 . The Arrival of the Common Man. Sapere Aude Gallery. Copenhagen, Denmark. 2019 . Giudizio Universale. Tibaldi Arte Contemporaneo Gallery. Rome, Italy. . Selection of works. HAV Coffee and Art. Havana, Cuba. . Maiorum. Provincial Center of Plastic Arts. Havana, Cuba. . Effugium. Del Castillo Art Studio. Collateral to the XIII Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba. 2018. Hominium. DNasco Gallery. Havana, Cuba. 2015. Evolution. Miami Art Conection, Miami, Florida, USA. 2011. Los Caprichos. San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts. Havana, Cuba. 2006. Selection of Drawings for Cuban Dance Event. Centro pro Danza, Havana, Cuba.

COLLECTIONS  

Studiolo Collection, Spain . RGH Collection, Spain (private) . Correa & Borges Art Collection, Florida, USA . UCF Downtown Campus Collection, Orlando, FL, USA . Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa, Arizona, USA (public collection) Private collections USA , CANADA, MEXICO, SPAIN, GERMANY, FRANCE, ITALY, ENGLAND, SWITZERLAND, CHINA, VIETNAM.

Yuniel Delgado Castillo's works can be seen at:  

DDR ART GALLERY , Calle de la Encomienda 21, 28012, Madrid. 

info@ddrartgallery.com

Tel. +34 659819791