Big black cloud over Havana 2023 graphite on travertine marble, 12 x 24 inches. David Castillo Gallery, Miami
Big black cloud over Havana, represents a realistic landscape of the Malecón of Havana, which symbolically implies the recent political and economic landscape in Cuba; specifically, related to the explosion at a fuel storage facility in the province of Matanzas, where several people died, in August 2022, which released a huge cloud of toxic smoke that engulfed Matanzas and traveled more than 60 miles to Havana. The appearance of the graphite drawing is evocative of postcards or allegorical photographs from the end of the 19th century, a condition that perhaps suggests an actuality lost in time, distant or forgotten reality.