How can we define Douglas Perez Castro? How can we not be astonished by his colours and the possibilities offered by his canvases? The Havanese artist seems to dominate the muses, the blank canvas, the fear of the first stain. Every time Maxima talks to him, in short or long periods, he talks about new paintings, about ideas that only inhabit a fertile and powerful mind like his.
Douglas Perez Castro, in broad terms, is the creator of opportunities, yes, of an opportune universe to escape from routine and return with new energy.
Tropical Babylon (Oil on Canvas, 2019) is one of his most striking works in the Pictopia series that is part of the catalogue of our Gallery-Studio, located in Monserrate Street, corner to Tejadillo.
When observing the piece, a strange feeling invades the human eye. Taste. Mixture. Havana in full color? Tonalities in their maximum expression appear in a typical night of the Prado Havanese, with a lot of figuration, of fiction, of combining elements of the cinema with allegories to the childhood (something recurrent partly in his works). He takes as his basis the typical architecture of a medieval castle and places it at the centre of his painting. He steals the show and questions us over and over again which is our closest reference to this constructive fortress.
This power of dialogue, of sensation, of mixed feelings provokes the artist in his work. He knows that a refined technique is the first requirement for success. Then comes the materialization of the idea, making it legible, appreciable to the eyes tired of quantities, of rhythms, of essences that we interpret day by day in life.
In the middle of this capital scenario of Perez Castro, the National Capitol occupies its original position, but it is not the center of attention. There are almost obligatory buildings in that landscape, as well as the palms and trees that complement the artistic proposal. In the end, the painting, if you like, is a reflection of reality, but at the same time it is a myth and a permanence of an internal world that is carried in the veins.
The creator reveals part of his mind, like someone who seeks to stop the gaze of others before the mixture of colours, the degradation of blues, the black areas of the sky, the shadows of the castle and the artificial lights.
Each pictorial element leads to another, provoking the approach of the eye and the search for imperceptible details in the social memory of a space seen and frequented by the majority, but because it is so popular, sometimes it is forgotten to contemplate it at a macro level.
Tropical Babylon is one of those works that we would like to have at home, on the wall at work or at the entrance of any private or state space. Thinking about Havana, in its artistic dimension, always brings back good memories, but since speaking for the majority is taking too many risks, the best thing is to get rid of the concepts, to forget about the immediate past and present and let the colors of Douglas Perez Castro with all its creative variations come to mind.
Published 3/03/2020