CoralGables-June2018

Ruben Torres Llorca
Ideas on art: “If you go to the doctor with a pain in your chest,
he’ll tell you the cause – cardiovascular, muscular – and what
medicine to take. I work the same way with what worries me
or interests me. The idea tells me how to do the piece. Sometimes,
it needs photography, painting or a three-dimensional sculpture.
And I follow very strict rules. [American writer] William Faulkner
once said in art, ‘You must kill your darlings.’ So, I don’t get
married to any craft, no matter how pretty it may be.
What interests me most is not to tell you my opinion, but
just to create a space where we can question together some
subjects. It’s like I create this bull arena, I let the bull go out, and
you need to deal with it – to the point where sometimes, I don’t
recognize a piece I did 15 years ago.”
Pictured with Better Days Ahead, 86 inches by 86 inches,
mixed media, $25,000: “This is a very simple piece. At first
glance, it’s very comfortable. I paint it like a 1950s illustrator, sort
of Norman Rockwell. (I studied 11 years in a Soviet academy
in Cuba to avoid the military.) But at some point, you realize
life is not that pretty. So, I tried to create a dramatic arc like in
literature, some type of paradox, by saying ‘Better Days Ahead,’
because this one is horrible. They’re running scared, trying to find
a better future. The newspaper in the background is a reference to
the crazy amount of information we have - to the point that we
get lost in it. The round, floating shapes show this piece is not as
solid as you think, art need not be forever, this piece is alive, this
is going to change.”
BORN: Havana, Cuba in 1957.
EDUCATION: Cuba’s top art schools, Escuela
Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro from
1972-76 and Instituto Superior de Arte from
1976-81.
KNOWN FOR: Painting, drawing, sculpture
and collage, often with social commentary
and wit.
IN CORAL GABLES: Since 2004. In the US
since 1993. Also lived in Cuba, Mexico, Brazil
and Argentina.
WEBSITE: www.condecontemporary.com/
ruben-torres-llorca-1
LAST EXHIBIT: “New Works: Ruben Torres
Llorca” at Conde Contemporary in Coral
Gables, 2017.
Top: Another Happy Ending, 72x32 inches. 2014
What interests
me most is not
to tell you my
opinion...
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