Soy un artista que me he dedicado a investigar a través de la escultura las formas en que el arte aborda los temas humanos. Conceptos como despedida, pérdida, duelo, asimilación, añoranza, alegría, belleza e inmortalidad, están presentes en mi producción artística porque es una obra enteramente humanista. Estos conceptos los traslado a mi trabajo y los trato como energía, esencia, y espíritu humano, lo que me permite crear una figuración ausente de figuración, donde el espectador es el encargado de suplir esas omisiones.

En mi obra, están presentes temáticas variadas: Cultura Universal e Inmigración, Esencia y Espiritualidad humana y Descontextualización del Objeto, algo que llamo “Desnominación”.

En la primera, Cultura Universal e Inmigración, integro el elemento que emigra (no tan solo emigran los individuos, emigra la cultura, las ideas) y distribuyo simbologías pertenecientes a antiguas culturales que me ayuden a reforzar pérdidas y presencias a través de la historia de la humanidad. Ejemplo es la serie Palimpsesto.

En la segunda, Esencias y Espirtualidad reflejo el interior humano y trabajo temas como la música y la danza vistos como estados de la creación. El tema religioso lo planteo con imágenes de monjes como entidades instrospectivas.

En la tercera, Desnominación del Objeto, descontextualizo al objeto y lo contextualizo metamorfoseado en uno nuevo. Ejemplo es la serie Hedonismo.

Las influencias en mi arte están marcadas por Giorgio de Chirico y Fidelio Ponce de León, el primero me brindó el concepto, el segundo me cerró la figuración. El escultor impresionista Medardo Rosso, en el tratamiento de las obras, Salvador Dalí con las formas metamorfoseadas y el neorrealismo en la ausencia humana y la presencia de los objetos.

Siempre he trabajado la escultura en metales nobles como el cobre, latón, bronce, plata, oro de manera artesanal porque creo en la belleza del oficio de los maestros clásicos. Cada golpe, cada soldadura me permite sacar de una lámina irrepetibles luces y sombras, texturas, hermosas huellas de defectos e inexactitud, obteniendo obras de una fuerte aprensión visual con un halo atemporal, que adquieren los objetos usados.

Mi propuesta como artista es impactar al público, provocando confusión visual para suscitar la reflexión y procesos mentales de pensamiento que sin asumir una religión, un marco político o cultural específico, el espectador pueda descubrir la parte espiritual de lo que somos nosotros como humanidad.

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I am an artist that I have dedicated myself to investigate through the sculpture the forms in which the art approaches the human themes. Concepts such as farewell, loss, mourning, assimilation, longing, joy, beauty and immortality, are present in my artistic production because it is an entirely humanist work. These concepts transfer them to my work and treat them as energy, essence, and human spirit, which allows me to create a figuration absent from figuration, where the viewer is in charge of supplementing those omissions.

In my work, various topics are present: Universal Culture and Immigration, Essence and Human Spirituality and Decontextualize of the Object, something I call
“Desnominación”. 

In the first, Universal Culture and Immigration, I integrate the element that migrates (not only emigrate individuals, migrate culture, ideas) and distribute symbologies belonging to old cultural that help me to reinforce losses and presences throughout the history of the humanity. Example is the Palimpsest series.
In the second, Essences and Spirituality reflects the human interior and work themes such as music and dance seen as states of creation. The religious theme is posed with images of monks as introspective entities.

In the third, Denomination of the Object, decontextualize to the object and the contextualized metamorphosed in a new one. Example is the Hedonism series.
The influences in my art are marked by Giorgio de Chirico and Fidelio Ponce de Leon, the first gave me the concept, and the second closed the figuration. Impressionist sculptor Medardo Rosso, in the treatment of works, Salvador Dali with metamorphosed forms and neorealism in human absence and the presence of objects.

I have always worked in noble metals such as copper, brass, bronze, silver, gold in a traditional way because I believe in the beauty of the trade of classical masters. Each blow, each welding allows me to take from a sheet unrepeatable lights and shadows, textures, beautiful traces of defects and inaccuracy, obtaining works of a strong visual apprehension with a timeless halo, which acquire used objects.

My proposal as an artist is to impact the public, provoking visual confusion to provoke reflection and mental processes of thought that without assuming a religion, a specific political or cultural framework, the viewer can discover the spiritual part of what we are as humanity.

Place of residency: Miami, Florida, USA

“I have discovered that I’m a terribly frustrated poet who deconstructs his poems in sculptures, lacking the understanding that words exist behind one another.”

EDUCATION
1992 Graduated of Sculpture and Drawing, School of Visual Arts San Alejandro , Havana, Cuba

AWARDS
2011 First Prize of Sculpture, Art Fest @Doral, Carlos Albizu University, Miami, FL, USA
2000 Second Place, Erotic Art Salon, Gallery The Acacia, Havana, Cuba
1993 First Place, Small Sculpture Competition Format Fernando Boada, Havana, Cuba

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 Tautology, Miami River Drive Art Fair, James L Knight Miami Convention Center, Brickell, Miami FL, USA
          Hedonism, Viceroy Hotel at Icon Brickell, Miami FL, USA
2010 Palimpsest, Gallery o2c-Art, Art Basel, Wynwood, Art District, Miami, FL, USA
2005 To exhale, Smoke Jazz and Supper Club, New York, NY, U S A
2002 The Art of Octavio Cuellar, J.L.S. Contemporary Art Gallery, Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico, Mexico
2001 Fugitive Spirit, La BOOM Show Center, Mexico City, Mexico
1999 Escaping of my body, Cigar Smokers Country Club and Habano Tobacco House. Istanbul, Turkey
          Upside down Century, Itinerant exhibition in Greece. May, Piraeus Municipal Gallery; July, Cultural Center of the Kephalonia Island’s government and                    Museum of the University of Athens
1997 In silence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX), City of Havana, Cuba
          Eyes that prefer to imagine, Gallery The Acacia, City of Havana, Cuba
          Things of the soul, Andalucía Plaza Hotel, Marbella, Spain
          Eyes prefer imagine, Gallery The Acacia, Havana, Cuba
1995 The essential is invisible to the eyes, Octavio Cuellar sculptures, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba
1993 Spiritual, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana, Cuba
1992 Reflections, Art Center 23 y 12, Havana, Cuba

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2017 Dreams, Sarcasm, Cynicism, with Cuban artists Luis Cabrera (printmaking), Cesar Beltran and Teo Beceiro (painting), Art & Design Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
2016 Intangible Flight, with the Cuban painter David Rodriguez and Brazilian painter Claudio Souza Pinto, Art & Design Gallery, Miami, FL, USA
2015 Nueva Zona Franca, Canvas sponsor, Latin American Art Pavilion Project, Red Dot Fair during Art Basel week, Miami, FL, USA
2014 Three talents, three artists, Stone House of San Bernardino Contla, Tlaxcala, Mexico
2011 Miami Wave Project (booth), International Art Fair Naples, Naples, FL, USA (Curated by Sergio Garcia, artist)
2007 Europe-Latin America Meeting, J.L.S. Contemporary Art Gallery. Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico, Mexico
2003 Visual Images, El Carmen Museum. Mexico City, Mexico
2001 5th Cuban-Mexican Visual Arts Salon, Embassy of the Republic of Cuba in Mexico, México City, Mexico
2000 3ra. Teodoro Ramos Blanco Sculpture Biennial and 98th Anniversary of Teodoro Blanco’s Birth Theoretical Meeting, Teodoro Ramos Blanco Gallery, Havana, Cuba
          CODEMA 2000, Cuban Contemporary Sculpture Salon, International Forum of Environmental Sculpture, Center for the Development of Visual Arts,                      Havana, Cuba
          1st Erotic Art Salon Exhibit, Gallery The Acacia, Havana, Cuba
1999 Contemporary Cuban Exhibition, Cuban Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia
1998 Exhibition Week of the Czech Culture, Gallery Art Galiano and Concordia, Havana, Cuba
1994 Cuban Contemporary Sculpture, Havana, Cuba
1993 Small format, Gallery L, Havana, Cuba
1992 Exhibit of the year with Cuban artists Manuel Mendive, Roberto Fabelo, Flora Fong, Nelson Dominguez, Zaida del Rio, Arturo Montoto, Pedro Pablo Oliva,            Gallery The Acacia, Havana, Cuba

INTERNATIONAL EVENTS
2016 Art Medellin, September 16-19, “Trazos de Identidad” (Strokes of identity), Latin American Art Pavilion Booth, Curator Anaibis Yero, Plaza Mayor, Medellin,            Antioquia, Colombia
2015 Red Dot Art Fair, December, Latin America Art Pavilion booth, Curator Anaibis Yero, Art Basel week, Downtown Miami FL, USA
2013 Miami River Drive Art Fair, December 5, James L Knight Miami Convention Center, Brickell, Miami FL, USA
2012 Biennial Visual Art LNVA, September 15- October 26, Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at the University of Connecticut’s, Avery Point Campus, CT, USA
2010 RUTA 2010, International Juried Exhibition, February, Bakehouse Art Complex, Wynwood Art District,
          Miami, FL, USA
2004 2da Biennial Visual Arts in Yucatan, Cultural Institute of Yucatan, Mexico
1994 5th Havana Biennial (Contemporary Cuban Sculpture), May-July, Mariano Rodríguez Gallery, Havana, Cuba
1992 ARCOS 92, Exhibit on the occasion of the Meeting between Two Cultures, September, Arcos Fair, Madrid, Spain
          COMMISSIONS 2017 Private Art Commission, Musician of Contra bass, sculpture (77 H x 34 W x 32 D inches), copper, Miami Country Day School, Building           Center for the Arts, Miami, FL, USA 2002 Private Art Commission, Espiritu prófugo (Spirit fugitive), twenty sculptures on human scale, copper, Rincon                   Dorado, Cuernavaca, Morelos State, Mexico 2000 Corporate Art Commission, Luego existo (Then I exist), three sculptures on human scale, copper, Hostel           Los Frailes, Old Havana, Cuba Public Art Commission, Tourists, three sculptures on human scale, copper, Arenas Doradas Hotel, Varadero, Cuba 1999                   Corporate Art Commission, The Monk, sculpture, copper, Basilica Minor of the San Francisco de Asis Convent, Old Havana, Cuba Public Art Commission,               The Rhythm of Silence, four sculptures, variable dimensions, copper, Jazz Café, Havana, Cuba 1997 Private Art Commission, Spainair Traveler, sculpture,               copper, Spanair S.A. headquarter in Palma de Mallorca, Spain Private Art Commission, Slow Passage, sculpture, copper, Andalacia Plaza Hotel, Marbella,               Spain Public Art Commission, Appearance, sculpture, copper, Hotel Sotavento, Varadero, Cuba 1996 Public Art Commission, Presence, sculpture, copper,               Hotel Arenas Doradas, Varadero, Cuba

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS SELECTION
CUBA Hotel Arenas Doradas, Varadero, Matanzas
Hotel Sotavento, Varadero, Matanzas
Hotel Turquesa, Varadero, Matanzas
Paseo Galleries, Havana
Basilica of the Convent of St. Francis of Assisi, Old Havana, Cuba
Havana Historian Eusebio Leal Spengler, Havana, Cuba
ECUADOR President National Football Federation Galo Roggiero
ENGLAND Halvor Astrup Collection
GUATEMALA Ricardo Arjona Collection
MEXICO Carlos Slim Collection
Hank González Family
De la Parra Family
SPAIN Gabriel Canaues Collection (General Manager, “Meliá” Channel)
SYRIA Prince Faisal Abdula
USA Senator Mark O. Hatfield Collection

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Print Media
Garcia, Nelson, “Octavio Cuellar”, section Arte divino Arte, Palabra Nueva Magazine, Year XXV, July-August 2016, No.216, p.74
“Esculturas y Arte Pictórico se exhiben en Casa de Piedra de Contla”, Cuarto de Guerra digital newspaper, May23th, 2014, Tlaxcala, Mexico.
Wifredo Lam Bulletin, “No pisotear lo hecho con el Corazon” (Do not trample on what is done with the Heart), 10th Havana Biennial, Wifredo Lam Center, 2009, Old Havana, Cuba.
Newspaper Editor, “Iddar de la Parra promueve al escultor Cubano Octavio Cuellar” (Iddar de la Parra promotes the Cuban sculptor Octavio Cuellar), El Heraldo de Mexico newspaper, September 2001
“Presencias de un escultor”, Arte & Artes Magazine, Mexican culture magazine, No.9, Year 3, Mexico City, Mexico
Perez, Yanet, “La vestimenta de un pecador” (The vestment of a sinner), Opus Habana
Magazine, Vol. III, No. 3-4, November 30, 1999
Diaz Romay, Alexis Raul, “El mago de Oz”, Habanera Magazine, 1997, Havana, Cuba. “Crítica de la obra del escultor Octavio Cuéllar” (Critique of the work of the sculptor Octavio Cuéllar), Eyes that prefer to imagine exhibition, catalogue, words by the art history Professor Antonio Alejo, Gallery The Acacia, 1997, Havana, Cuba “Octavio Cuéllar: como la materia hecha flor”, Lo esencial es invisible para los ojos exhibition, catalogue, words by Lino Betancourt Molina, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, 1995,
Havana, Cuba
“Spiritual”, Spiritual exhibition, catalogue, words by the Cuban painter Cesar Lela Jimenez, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, 1993, Havana, Cuba

Website Publications
Octavio Cuellar, “Observe”, Youtube, April 10, 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlDHw5DnHfY
https://www.ecured.cu/index.php/Octavio_Cu%C3%A9llar_Campos, 2011
Art Naples & Octavio Cuellar, Naples, FL, USA, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7Ktic0OiSs
“Octavio Cuellar”, The Cuban Art Project website, 2011.
https://thecubanartproject.com/artists-2/octavio-cuellar/
Garcia Tapia, Hugo “Muestra Octavio Cuellar su nueva obra escultórica”, El Universal newspaper, September 26, 2001, Mexico. http://archivo.eluniversal.com.mx/estilos/17297.html
Perez, Yanet, “La vestimenta de un pecador” (The vestment of a sinner), taken from Opus Habana Magazine, Vol. III, No. 3-4, November 30, 1999. http://www.opushabana.cu/index.php/articulos/29-articulos-artes-visuales/478-