José Yaque

Mimetita II is part of an extensive pictorial series "Minerals" that Yaque has been creating from a process of alchemical experimentation with natural pigments and latex.

To mix and apply the colours the artist uses his hands, the force of gravity and vibrations, forming a magma that is transformed once more when he wraps the works with a plastic film. After the drying process is over, the artist removes the protective layer and the result is an eroded painting: the plastic has the same effect on the canvas that wind and water have on the earth’s surface. 

The installation from the Tumba Abierta series is a sort of archive undergoing a process of transformation, allowing a vision on natural elements and how they transmute through time. Emphasizing the process of permanent change, it's an invitation to witness the unescapable beauty of a constant transfiguration that also occurs in ourselves.

José Eduardo Yaque Llorente was born in Manzanillo, Cuba in 1985. He currently lives and works in Havana. He studied at "Carlos Enríquez" Professional Academy of Fine Arts in Manzanillo (2005) and the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) in Havana (2011).

In 2010 he participated in the first Biennial of Contemporary Art in Portugal and exhibited at Wasps Artists’ Studios, in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2012 he won a residence in Warsaw: in Poland he exhibited in the Zacheta Project Room of the National Gallery of Art in Warsaw as part of the collective exhibition “Fragmentos” and achieved, at the National Gallery of Art Zacheta, his first solo exhibition outside national borders. 

In 2017, he took part in the collective exhibition of the Cuban Pavilion, in Palazzo Loredan, at the 57th Venice Biennale.

Among his solo exhibitions, we mention:"Maturation", St Regis, Galleria Continua, Rome (2020); “El dilema del ciempensamientos", Colegio de Arquitectos (UNAICC), Havana (2019) ; “Calma”, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna (2019); “Kind of Blue”, David Gill Gallery, London (2018); “Origen”, Galleria Continua, Havana (2017); “Alluvione d´Arno”, Villa Pacchiani Exhibition Centre, Santa Croce sull´Arno, Pisa (2017); “Tierra Madre”, David Gill Gallery, London (2017); “Gravedad”, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France (2015); “Scavare”, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy (2015); “Magma”, National Library of Cuba, Havana (2015). 

Group exhibitions that feature his work include: “José Yaque and Flavio Garciandía measure and compare their penises (“fuck…”, said Garciandía)”, open studio, Havana (2019); “ABUC”, Mai36 Gallery, Switzerland (2019); “Agua Salada”, Regla, Havana (2019); “Ola Cuba!”, Gare Saint Sauveur, Lille (2018); Art Basel Unlimited, Basel (2018); “Cuban Art Now”, Singer Laren Museum, Amsterdam (2017); “¿Soy Cuba?”, Palazzina dei Bagni Misteriosi, Milan (2017); “Queen Anne´s lacy”, Wasserman Projects, Detroit (2017); “Cuba mi amor”, Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France (2017); “The meantime”, Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, The Hague, Netherlands (2017); “Nido sin árbol”, Colegio de Arquitectos (UNAICC), Havana (2016); “Cuarteto”, Galleria Continua, Havana (2016); “Transhumance”, CAB Art Center, Brussels (2016); “TÚ + YO = NOSOTROS”, Galleria Continua, Havana (2015); “Wind and Art Don’t Care about Border”, Metropolitan Art Society, Beirut (2015); “Anclados en el territorio”, Galleria Continua, Havana (2015); “Follia Continua (25 Years of GalleriaContinua”), CENTQUATRE, Paris; “Senderos de Bosque”, Emerson College/ Ruskin East G. Floor, Forest Road, England, UK (2013).