About me

Calzadilla The Artist & Art

Born and raised in Holguin. Cuba Calzadilla grew up in a world very different from the one that most Americans are familiar. Through his trails and tribulations. he overcame the hardships of daily life in his homeland never forgetting or abandoning his love for his country. At the age of thirty. Calzadilla set out on his journey to America on a tiny raft against an unforgiving sea. Upon his arrival in America. Calzadilla spent one year in o confinement camp at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. He worked tirelessly on his art at this time. The subiect of his earlier work focuses on the Struggle for life and survival during his long sea voyage and lite behind the wired fences at Guantanamo.

The strength of his use of color. abstract Imagery. and brilliant brushwork allow Calzadilla to innovatively express and reveal his artwork to the viewer. ail the while leaving himself open to varying degrees of interpretation. A brilliant colorist with a keen sense of line, Calzadilla hints at a narrative but. leaves the viewer to respond personally and make the image their own. Through surreal landscapes and human forms he combines fantasy and dreams with reality He transforms the personal into the universal and the mystical. Surrounding the Complexity of his compositions. landscapes composed of endless, undefined world’s meld together and become conditioned by elements of surrealism and fantasy. Images once distorted become tul of meaning.

The stories and symbolism Calzadilla captures in his earlier work touches the hearts of his fellow Cuban nationalists. He brings a deeper sense of clarity to all those seeking to explore and more fully understand the nature of life in Cuba and the individuals experience with a transition to a life in America. Hope. hard work. fulfillment. disappointment and emotion explode on canvas with each stroke of his brush. Calzadilla strives to bring every painting to life. Piece by piece parceilng together his colorful past. lively present and aspirations and hopes for the future.

Today. Calzadilla is on established artist. becoming ever more well known for his vivid and colorful paintings on canvas. Private collectors in Italy. Germany Canada and the United States own his artwork while some of his work has become the property of the Daimler-Chrysler Corporation and the Bacardi-Martini Company.

Calzadilla is an outstanding. self-taught artist whose paintings depict an intrinsic and creative thought process that is evident in his personal style. His passion for his work and love of life are unparalleled.

EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS

Alex Calzadilla has participated in the following exhibits:

• 1999 Self Installment at WAMI Studios
• 1999 Group Show at Penciero D’Art. Miami. FL
• 1998 One Man Show titled “Shadows of Divine Freedom” at Fusion Gallery, San Petersburg, FL
• 1998 Group Show Art Frame, Miami, FL
• 1998 One man show at Momo’s Gallery Cafe, Miami, FL
• 1997 Awarded third prize in the “Art Who Move Us” art contest sponsored by Chrysler Corp.
• 1997 Group Show at Santayana Gallery
• 1997 Group Exhibit at “Euro America Gallery”
• 1997 Permanent Showing at “Bacardi Museum”, Miami, FL
• 1997 Group Show Latin American Museum I
• 1997 Group Show Latin American Museum II
• 1997 Art Showing at “I’ve Been Framed” in Miami, FL
• 1996 Group Exhibit at the Pierre Marcel Gallery
• 1996 One Man Show titled “Rafter & After” at the Pierre Marcel Gallery
• 1996 Awarded first prize in the “Art Who Move Us” Art contest sponsored by Chrysler Corp.
• 1996 Group Exhibit, Astoria Fine Art Gallery
• 1996 Preview Art Expo, New York, Astoria Fina Art Gallery
• 1996 Group Show, Art Expo. New York, Jacob Jabits Convention Center
• 1996 Group Show, Domingo Padron Gallery
• 1996 Group Show, Congress Building, Washington, DC
• 1995 Miami Group Show at Hotel Radisson Cuban-American Special Event
• 1995 Group Show in the bobby of the Miami Herald. titled “Cuban Art from Guantanamo”
• 1995 Group Show a the Navy Exchange, Guantanamo, Cuba
• 1993 Galleria Ballardo, Cuba
• 1992 Expo Sala Hermanos Saiz, Cuba
• 1990 Galeria Sala Moncada, Cuba
• 1989 Casa de la Cultura Munnel Dositeo, Cuba

Calzadilla is a painter who has done an absolute on his art work in the sublimation of the themes interpreting infinite statements, creating a deep world, testimony of beauty, divinely unbalanced harmony presented with tastefully colors, remaining recognizable paragon on his contemporary art.

Calzadilla is a painter with a passion and an artist who focuses on a wide range of figures and subjects, exploring the feelings, emotions and ideas to delightfully seduce the viewer with its complete harmony of color and shapes. His art does not come out of any established tradition, but is influenced by his life experienced which work is composed of schematic figures and shapes into correlatives symbols with surrealistic elements. Today Calzadilla’s Collection has a remarkable body of work characterized by bright clashing colors and dreamlike imaginary.