University at Buffalo (UB)
November 5–February 6, 2010
Carlos Estévez
Brochure available with an essay by Jorge J. E. Gracia, SUNY Distinguished Professor.
Carlos Estévez works with traditional materials but also incorporates nontraditional elements into his art. He regularly collects objects of various kinds—particularly artifacts such as bottles and gadgets he finds at rummage sales and flea markets—which he later integrates into his works. Currently residing in Miami, he was born and educated in Cuba; he has also lived in France, Spain, Norway, Mexico, and England, and has visited many other countries in Europe and Latin America. His travels have enriched both the person and the artist. In particular, the year he spent in Paris (2003–04) was significant to his development, giving him an appreciation for the history of Western art going back to the Middle Ages.
The range of Estévez’s work extends from sculptures and installations to oil and acrylic paintings on canvas and paper, drawings on paper, assemblages, collages, and combinations of these. Estévez’s art is easily recognizable. He uses machines, wheels, pulleys, levers, springs, buildings, and animals in an attempt to reveal the complexity of human thoughts and emotions. His humans are often puppets with bodies that reveal the complicated mechanisms engaged in their movements and thoughts. He aims at pushing the boundaries of the imagination in order to explore the nature of the world that surrounds us and the reality within. His art is a laboratory of sorts, an observation platform. The mind behind the work is as fascinated with new discoveries as those of Renaissance and Enlightenment scientists and explorers.
Curated by Jorge J. E. Gracia, SUNY Distinguished Professor.
Sponsors: Samuel P. Capen Chair in Philosophy and Comparative Literature, UB Art Gallery, UB College of Arts and Sciences, and the Humanities Institute.