Modernity has brought countless changes in art. We know that. Changes referred to pictorial themes, to figuration itself and also have multiplied, like a violent river, the materials, objects and supports to conceive a certain creation.
In this scenario, Niels Reyes Cadalso could seem a stranger. Oil on canvas and canvas have become his preferred instrument, his way of assuming the portrait as a provocation. Through the most traditional practices, he originates new forms, new faces that magnetize and testify the pulsations of the present time, with the mixture that characterizes the current physiognomies.
While some artists prefer exotic and fashionable materials, this painter born in Villa Clara in 1977 bets on tradition with a futuristic vision, although he does not rule out other creative methodologies, as he demonstrated in his exhibition "Territorio Comanche/Cabeza de vaca", where an audiovisual work of his authorship could be seen.
Another of Niels' qualities is the liveliness he attributes to the eyes he paints. In this area of the work, we witness traces of hyperrealism in the pupils, in the contours, in the gaze so sharp that it looks all too real. The colors vary from honey yellow to different shades of green. She also adds several layers to achieve volume and life to her proposal, to make it more penetrable to the outside eye.
At times, Reyes Cadalso makes us forget that it is only a work of art of width by height, and provokes an optical illusion, as we wonder if it is not really a person who is looking back at us.
The experiences acquired in other geographies, together with his years of study at the higher level of the University of the Arts of Cuba, formed the legitimate creator that contemporary Cuban art has today. He has given enough proof.
Today Reyes Cadalso shows off his style and dares, more and more, to create different faces permeated by a telluric richness full of tonalities, shades, gestures..., after all, they are nothing more than creative intentions as evidence that the important thing is the talent and the will of the creator. The rest is almost always taken care of by time.
On other occasions we appreciate a different perspective in his creation, that is to say, a painting that does not present such a mixture of identities in human bodies, but rather seeks the transparency and simplicity of a pictorial instant, of a gesture, a look or a scene that transmits beauty, doubts and sadness, always with the strength to provide glimpses of reality. This is where his success in portraiture comes from, not only because of his technique and sharpness, but also because he goes beyond a challenging or enigmatic face to reveal a piece of each person. With her works, the other always finds a way to identify himself, to know that there also beats a piece of himself.
In the Maxima collection you can find several works by Niels Reyes Cadalso that attest to the above and demonstrate the verve of a painting that responds to its time and where it is exposed to be trapped in figures representative of who we are in the world.