Lines of Desire - Ruben Rodriguez

LINES OF DESIRE

Ruben Rodriguez interacts with the public through one of his latest exhibitions LINES OF DESIRE, opened at the cultural center “El Mejunje” in Santa Clara city. The collection, produced in different moments from 2008 and 2016, finds its way among ink, charcoal and the mixtures of oil and acrylic. Two works made in 2008 are a clear example of this interaction of the painter with the audience: MANO UBRE (probably the most daring of this series of drawings because of its open and inhibited eroticism) and HIERRO FRÍO, a drawing (ink and charcoal) presented and apparently unfinished that should be observed in relation to its oral discourse, showing visual peculiarities of proven splendor that reveals the complexity of the making process.

Armed with the weapons provided by the New Figuration trend, Rubén Rodríguez also uses neoexpressionist elements to offer us a very particular iconography without precedents, I ́d dare to say, in the Cuban arts history where he has gained a place as one of the most robust and sharp creators.

LINES OF DESIRE turns into an unusual fusion orgy of the “corpus” used; that is why, these drawings establish a link with the paintings of ADVENTURES OF THE BODY, a collection that is now exposed in Arche Gallery at the seat of the UNEAC(National Association of Cuban Artists and Writers) in Santa Clara: visual combinations that at times are colored with suggestive fadings or precise spots as in AQUELLOS LUGARES, where a viscous yellow zone could refer to hate in form of bile or to the liquid that flows resulting from plain pleasure; or as in DE REOJO (also from 2016) where a suggestive red color, of imperceptible strokes, seems to turn into the vitality of a heart…

The citizens of Santa Clara, art lovers, are delighted with both exhibitions of Ruben Rodriguez, a creator with many daemons who comes to share his good guardian angel of arts.