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José Antonio Rodríguez Fuster, known to everybody as Fuster, is one of Cuba's leading artists. His work is exhibited widely not only in Cuba, where he is a national icon, but throughout the world including, paradoxically, in the USA.
Often called the Picasso of the Caribbean, Fuster's scenes of everyday Cuban life are full of bright vibrant colours, buses belching smoke crowded with commuters, guitar players, lovers, and the omnipresent game of street dominoes.
Sixty-one this year, Fuster is a graduate of the internationally respected 'Escuela para Instructores del Arte' in Havana. In 1996, the Cuban Ministry of Culture awarded him the Distinction for National Culture, the most prestigious award with which Cuba can honour an artist.
However, Fuster is the people's artist; originally a ceramicist, he has decorated the exterior of his house, and many of the houses in his locality, with his work. Even the local doctor's surgery has had a Fuster make-over!
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He is truly an extraordinary artist. When you walk down the street of the Havana suburb in which he lives and works, you can't help comparing him to Gaudí and Dalí. At times, the cacophony of colour, together with his religious symbolism, drawn from African Santería, the source of Cuba's roots, is quite overwhelming. A monumental sculpture of the god Shangó, or a giant cockerel about to take off from a surrealistic park bench, adorn the roadside.
Apart from the USA, Fuster's works have been shown in many countries including: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union and Spain.
Although Fuster's works have been shown in London and Manchester, as part of Cuban cultural exhibitions, 'The Colours of Life' is Fuster's first solo UK exhibition.
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