Alejandro Piñeiro Bello 

Havana-born, Miami-based artist Piñeiro Bello focuses his practice on the Caribbean diaspora, Cuba, and the surrounding island nations’ cultural identities, imagery, and history. He paints the sociocultural mystic splendor of the Caribbean’s culture using traditional materials, such as oil on raw linen or burlap, and works with a strong color palette to create images that capture the region’s fecundity.

Claro De Luna, 2023
oil on hemp
138 x 228 in. (350.5 x 579.1 cm)
acquired in 2023

 

Tormenta Solar, 2023
oil on hemp
138 x 228 in. (350.5 x 579.1 cm)
acquired in 2023

I wanted to create two distinct yet complementary artworks during my residency at the Rubell Museum. Tormenta Solar and Claro De Luna take us on a journey from dark to light, capturing the mysticism and magic of the creative force as a beacon in my own life. In Claro De Luna a man dives into the sea at night, seeking to capture the reflection of the moon in the dark blue and purple waters. Sharks attack him as he navigates the warm Caribbean waters, symbolizing the challenges and risks inherent in pursuing one’s vision. The sky explodes with colorful curvilinear shapes, stars twinkle above, and a virgin or spirit watches from above. The waves that crash around the man resemble both ocean waves and the shark teeth I used to find off the coast of Cojímar, the small coastal town in Cuba where I was born. A palm tree lives on the Polymita spiral-like shell beach, while mountains and tropical forests loom in the distance. This is a night painting, the dawn of a new day. 

Tormenta Solar, transports us to the other side of Claro De Luna, where the Sun is born and light becomes a storm. The Sun engulfs everything, swallowing color, mountains, trees, clouds, lines, and entire islands. Amidst the burst of light, an observant eye can be seen behind or inside the center of the light storm, perhaps the spirit of blinding light and heat that illuminates the Caribbean. Lines and semicircles burst forth like grand fins of fire, drawing the entire composition towards the center. There is no horizon, only a circular world bursting with light. A man waves as he enters, while a girl and her future self observe from the corners. These two paintings are extensions of each other, engaged in an eternal dialogue. The spiral motif is present in both paintings, behind the moon in Claro De Luna and in front of the sun in Tormenta Solar. They speak of the limitless abundance and beauty found in the Caribbean, where minimalism gives way to baroque extravagance, where a child sitting on a rock, facing the ocean under the moon or the radiant sun, can still live in the Real Marvelous, at the center of the spiral, between night and day.  

—Alejandro Piñeiro Bello