Roberto Fabelo

ROBERTO FABELO (Camagüey, Cuba, 1950).
"Animalia XII", 2015.
Charcoal on cardboard.
Signed and dated in the lower corner.
Certificate attached.
Measurements: 100 x 70 cm; 113 x 83 cm (frame).
Considered one of Cuba's most versatile and renowned artists, Roberto Fabelo displays in his art a splendid duality between the animal world and the human figure. Surrealistic in nature, Fabelo's art is completely identifiable: amphibious women, fauns, bird-men or centaurs are some of the beings that star in his works, halfway between the dream world and reality, which combine elements intrinsic to nature -such as shells, scales, bird and insect wings or bird heads- with scaly mermaid tails and other fantastic animals. As can be seen in the work that concerns us, these mermaids or sea maidens immortalized by Fabelo are presented with female bodies identical to the human gender, but with the particular scaly tails of fish and the already iconic heads crowned with fish or shells.
Painter, sculptor, draftsman and illustrator, Roberto Fabelo studied at the National School of Art and the Higher Institute of Art in Havana. Throughout his career as an artist, he has received numerous awards for his art, including the Medallion of National Culture (Cuba), the Alejo Carpentier Medallion, first place in the 11th International Biennial of Drawing in the United Kingdom, first place in the First Ibero-American Biennial of Watercolor in Viña del Mar, Chile and a UNESCO award for the promotion of Fine Arts. In 1984 Fabelo was recognized at the first Havana Biennial. His work has been shown in over 40 solo exhibitions and more than 500 group exhibitions in countries such as Switzerland, Japan, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. The work presented here continues Fabelo's own style, based on an absurdist yet vindictive humor. The work is in line with "Viaje Fantástico" (2012), which features a woman riding a chicken. For Fabelo, expressionism and surrealism merge in his work, drawing inspiration from reality and fantasy to configure works of great expressive charge.