Riera Studio - Raw Vision, 2017
"The artists affiliated with the Riera Studio are creatively motivated for the most personal reasons. Their styles and sensibilities are diverse, yet all share an intense expressive focus. Until the establishment of the Riera Studio in 2012, these individuals were unknown and often living on the margins of Cuban society. While none have formal academic training, their art is robust, defined and compelling.
Havana based artist Samuel Riera is the founder of the Riera Studio. This studio/workshop is Cuba’s first institution committed to Art Brut and Outsider Art. Unlike most Cuban arts organizations, Riera’s space is completely independent from the government and receives no official funding.
Samuel Riera is a graduate of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro", where he studied printmaking. From 2010 to 2011 as part of a project in Venezuela, Riera worked with a foundation that helped people who were drug addicted, homeless or living in violent, poor neighborhoods. This was a multidisciplinary program that included psychologists, social workers, doctors, and artists. Riera’s involvement exposed him to the possibilities of art making outside of a formal academic setting.
On his return to Cuba, Riera started his studio as a place that could present art that was not represented by government institutions. Over time Riera came to understand that he was working with individuals who create Art Brut and others who would be seen as Outsider artists in the United States and Europe.
As his vision for the studio became clearer, Riera started traveling within Cuba looking for artists. He would arrive at a town and randomly approach people on the street, asking if there was anyone they knew who was making art. What is impressive about this search is the number of exceptional artists Riera discovered. Many of these individuals are creating consequential art as strong as the most admired Outsider and Art Brut masters.
Born in 1915, Isabel Aleman Corrales was a schoolteacher who retired from her profession due to vocal problems. Without any formal training, she began to paint in 1960. Her tempera paintings read abstract at first glance, yet in almost all the works Corrales positions eyes within her organic forms. Corrales’s art has been loaned to the Studio to be studied and exhibited. There is a visceral power seen in her uninhibited and direct painting style that resonates on the page, creating intriguing and rarefied moments.
Miguel Ramon Morales Diaz is an artist with a very determined orientation. The figures he renders are distinct in appearance. Expressed urgency in his compositions reveals a narrative that is implied rather than specifically defined. His art has the emotional power often associated with Art Brut masters.
Born in 1948, Diaz came from a family of humble means and left school after finishing the 6th grade. As a boy he worked in construction and when he had free time, he would draw murals on the walls of abandoned buildings. Most of these works have not survived, but there are still a few intact examples of his street art in Havana. These days Diaz spends his time working outside with whatever materials he finds, creating striking images on recycled paper, cardboard, and wood.
There are several self-trained artists at the Riera Studio who are highly skilled draftsman. Bernardo Sarria Almoguea, who was born in 1950 and recently passed away, drew complex, detailed images. He was a man with an uncommon imagination. His drawings are not grounded in the real world, but are of his own invention. In these pictures, objects and figures relate and overlap in unconventional ways. The drawings are dream-like and emotionally charged, referencing social and religious issues. Almoguea was a hyperactive child and his mother brought drawing into his life to help him focus. Almoguea always sustained his interest in drawing, despite having to work in many settings during his life. He left a body of work that is not only consequential, but also provocative.
Damian Valdes Dilla draws a futuristic and often violent cityscape. These pictures are crowded with buildings that reference reimagined historic forms. Some renderings present a peaceful, yet bustling urban setting, while others show the city under siege. The works are both visceral and potent. Dilla, who has struggled with schizophrenia since adolescence, is able to meticulously express a sense of violence in many of his works. The emotional state he illustrates may reflect his own experience coping with mental illness.
Religion informs the art of Ruben Gerardo Guerrero Garrido. Following a profound personal tragedy as a young man, Garrido, although Christian, found solace in aspects of Judaism. His works combine writing and images from the Jewish tradition. These complex and intriguing creations are intensely personal. Garrido draws archetypal Jewish objects, making idiosyncratic compositions. These pieces are reminiscent of Shiviti, the Jewish mystical art form. Garrido’s extremely individualistic works on paper are expressions of his attempt to find contentment and peace of mind through religion.
While pursuing his graduate studies in Czechoslovakia, mathematician Carlos Javier Garcia Huergo began to experience extreme behavioral changes. Following the onset of schizophrenia, he developed an interest in drawing. His art is elaborate and rendered with a gentle hand. Numbers, words, human figures and animals are assembled on cardboard surfaces as if Huergo is illustrating a dream or a fantasy. A mathematician expressing himself through art, Huergo has found a way to transform a cerebral experience into a visual format that is both thought provoking and unexpected.
The most recent artist to be discovered by the Riera Studio is Esperanza Conde, who lives with her family in the remote countryside of Villa Clara. Conde, known to her friends as Pia, is a self-taught artist who feels compelled to paint. She has spent her entire life in an isolated rural setting living simply off the land, yet her art is sophisticated and confident. Conde’s work is energized with color and figures that brings vitality to the surface of paintings. Although she lives in a natural setting, it is the human psychological condition that she passionately explores in her art.
While the Riera Studio is only a few years old, Samuel Riera has a thoughtful vision for his organization. Many of the artists supported and represented by the studio are substantial and will inevitably be seen as important contributors in the fields of Outsider Art and Art Brut. Like Jean Dubuffet, Riera has the keen intuition to unearth and nurture exceptional creative talent often overlooked by others."
