Meet some Cuban artists, see their work

Music in Havana is everywhere  – from balconies on decaying houses from which laundry lines are strung, at dinner and over drinks on breezy rooftops, in immaculate and beautifully restored public squares, and among street vendors hawking peanuts.

Street art in Havana includes this fish and others hung along a pedestrian street

But others arts in Cuba also are just as public .

Fuster’s work is reminiscent of Gaudi

Ceramicist Jose R. Fuster, who lives in the suburbs near the off-limits compound  where Fidel Castro resides, has transformed his home and the entire neighborhood surrounding it .
It’s reminiscent of Gaudi, the over-the top Spanish artist known for his work in Barcelona.  Fuster welcomes folks to the open-air workshop in his home. His surreal world of ceramics has spread to benches, entryways, facades and roofs of nearby houses.

Back in Old Havana, a street mural along a cobbled pedestrian walkway near the handsome Plaza des Armas chronicles much of the city’s history and its people, who are carefully drawn and attired in the garments of their time. It’s a popular meeting place.

Nearby is a shady pocket of a park dedicated to Hans Christian Anderson.

Salvador Gonzalez

Step into an Havana alleyway transformed by painter Salvador Gonzalez into statements about the African influence in Cuba, including obscure references to voodoo-like santeria beliefs evolving from the slave years. The saint worship called santeria, entrenched for 300 years in Cuban culture, is a fusion of Catholicism with that of African Yoruba tribes.

Henry Aloma talks about his work.

When we visit Henry Aloma in his studio perched on a hillside in   Las Terrazas about an hour outside the city it’s immediately clear that he is a fine artist.

Lovely Las Terrazas is an artists community  in a valley centered by a lake and guarded over by giant mahogany and teak trees planted in a long ago reforestation effort.
We meet Aloma’s pretty daughter when we step into his studio to look at his works in progress. Later we also meet his wife.

He explains that his work comes from his unconscious without any preconceived ideas or objectivity. “Every idea is an island,” he tells us.
Read more about his Las Terrazas community, also in this blog.