RODRIGO DE LA LUZ • BIOGRAPHY

Rodrigo de la Luz, a Miami-based Cuban-American painter and sculptor, was born in Villa Clara, Cuba, in 1969. His paintings, sculptures have been exhibited at the Arteaméricas Fair (2012); Apogee exhibition sponsored by Women of Tomorrow and ArtesMiami in 2011; Spirit of Art Gallery in Miami; at a one-man show entitled Los Teatrinos, at Cremata Gallery in March 2009; and at the Amigos for Kids exhibition attended by 4,000 VIPs. 

During the past three years, his paintings and sculptures have also been featured at a one-man show at Miami’s Spanish Cultural Center, the Galería del Medio, and the art shows of Save the Children Art Exhibition and the Cuban American Bar Association.  His drawings have also appeared in Proyecto Setra digital magazine.  The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, Diario Las Américas and other publications have featured Rodrigo’s work, which has been purchased by several prominent collectors.

The artist defines his paintings as pop naïf.  His works create an imaginary world of masques, monsters and unique characters.  Rodrigo describes his small sculptures–made out of glass and metal–as part of the art of detritus. About one of his exhibitions, El Nuevo Herald’s cultural writer, Olga Connor, wrote:

In a double exhibit, Rodrigo de la Luz revealed his other face–that of sculptor of small figures of objets trouvés and of creator of naïf paintings–which could explain some of the strange aspects of his poetry.  In fact, he pointed out that his Beings in the Showcase were in the poems as well as in the objects that were exhibited all throughout the Spanish Cultural Center, expressing his vision of life, somewhat oblique or humorous, depending on the critic’s viewpoint.

Writer and journalist Rodolfo Sotomayor has said:  “…in his sculptures, just as in his poems, Rodrigo utilizes simple materials, in order to transform perfume bottles, forks, or wire into ballerinas, automobiles or soldiers.”  According to critic Armando Añel, Rodrigo’s artistic work “throws the personal experience into the arms of poetic imagination.  His collages, a mixture of objects—buttons, bottles …and other disposable elements—which form the human figures or animals, seem to be telling a story, defining a circumstance or a destiny.”