Maikel Dominguez Cuban-American, b. 1989
My painting has always been a refuge, a space of freedom, an island within another island.
I come from a country where human rights are violated. In my country everything is politics, even art. In my country there is censorship for art outside the interests of government. My painting has always been a refuge, a space of freedom, an island within another island. My work is also an example of survival against the cruelty of a context where human rights are violated. With my work I do not denounce an injustice, with my painting I survive injustice in a strange land. My work is not just painting on canvas, my work is attitude towards life. My work is a process, a mental state through which I search and find happiness.
To me art is an instrument with which I can do magic, generate my own reality and establish a direct connection between each individual´s physical and spiritual world. I believe artistic creation must be rewarding and healing for the artist, only then can he offer the Object-Art as knowledge and experience.
My search is focused in the creation of a universe ruled by balance. The results are fragments, narrations of a bittersweet world, full of contrasts and cynics; pastel atmospheres where my characters find relief. In any case I draw on the idea of sacrifice and pain, not from the perspective of the quiet observer that delights himself in the anatomy of the maimed body but from that of who encourages and supports what was already dead.
Podcast interview in spanish
Publications and Texts
Film on Maikel and his work
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Wearing Your Smell), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Nikki Beach), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Mississauga Celebration Square), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (I Was Skinned Three Times), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Glory-Hole-Animal), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Deep Tissue), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Corrio a abrazarlo But His Hug Hurts Like Sharp Winds), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Bareback Workout), 2019View more details
-
He Calls Me Diablo (Cum), 2019View more details
-
Springbrunn – A group show with our gallery artists
11 Jan - 17 Feb 2024As spring arrives, a palpable sense of hope fills the air, mirroring the transformative thaw of ice that births life-giving water. The way this water shapes itself and flows forward...Read more -
Maikel Dominguez | He calls me Diablo
13 Mar - 31 Jul 2020