Carlos Alfonzo
El loco duerme tambien - Mad One Also Sleeps, 1986
Carlos Alfonzo Born in Havana, 1950. "In Cuba I was a well
known artist. I had found a formula --swarms of little figurines
and the integration of literary texts--through which I could
deal with many themes without raising suspicion or criticism.
Painters younger than I were told that I was something like the
limit of what was allowed to go beyond could cause problems with
the cultural authorities. When I arrived in the United States it
took me more than a year to start painting again. The arrival,
the trip from the Port of Mariel, were a shock. My fundamental
search has been in the structural form how to paint an image,
how to let the hand go. This has been my only preoccupation,
since I have never had conceptual conflicts with my work. My
interest as a painter is to create new symbols, rather than
employ conventional imagery. My identification with religion is
that of creator more than interpreter. The symbology is
important the tongue for me represents oppression; the
cross--and I use many crosses in my work-- has mystical
connotations, it represents o spiritual balance, sacrifice; the
tears are a symbol of exile. My paintings hove to do with my
exile, with my personal drama as I see it.