José Yaque, Medio punto IV, 2022, Acrylic paint and enamel on canvas, 310 × 240 cm / 122 × 94 1/2 in
José Eduardo Yaque is a Cuban contemporary artist working across several mediums including painting, installation, art object, drawing, among other art forms. Through his multidisciplinary practice, he explores the relationship between man and nature. Not only does he refer to nature as that which is organic, but everything that surrounds and accompanies the human; everything from the sky to the earth’s center.
José Yaque’s research process and concerns may depart from personal origins to the circumstantial. The indistinction between material and medium, which characterizes him, marks the strong presence of experimentation within his practice. He does not specifically seek to evoke metaphors, nor is he concerned about great meanings within his work; rather he produces through spontaneity and attempts to create from a sincere and organic process. A process which is dependent on the relationship between artist and object and the intangible attraction between them. For Yaque, painting is corporeal, made by the body and not the mind. In his painting practice, the origin of colour is also deeply explored. It is painting that led him to learn about the geological universe under the earth’s surface and further explore types of rocks and minerals, which further permeated his production within other disciplines.
José Eduardo Yaque (b. in 1985 in Manzanillo, Cuba) 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. He has had solo exhibitions at Galleria Continua, Rome (2020); Colegio de Arquitectos (UNAICC), Havana (2019) ; Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna (2019); David Gill Gallery, London (2018); Villa Pacchiani Exhibition Centre, Santa Croce sull´Arno, Pisa (2017); Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France (2015); Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy (2015); and National Library of Cuba, Havana (2015). He currently lives and works between Havana and Madrid