First published: Spring 2023
Cuban artist Carlos García Huergo draws from theologies and number systems to depict his irreverent take on the world
Carlos Javier García Huergo, known by friends as “Carlitos”, is a creator with boundless creativity – a compulsive mathematician, Kabbalist, and proverb-citer. He has a great sense of humour – which even schizophrenia hasn’t managed to diminish – and is always sporting the mischievous smile of someone who knows something that others don’t. His conversation is peppered with jokes, song lyrics, life lessons and sayings.
Untitled, 2017, tempera, watercolour, coloured pencil, oil pastel and ballpoint pen on found cardboard, 20.5 x 31 in. / 52 x 78 cm
García-Huergo is extremely focused, especially when he is drawing, a pastime to which he devotes himself for hours at a time, absorbed in each piece as if it were the first or last of an impressive oeuvre that he has been labouring over for years.
Untitled, 2015, coloured pencil, ballpoint pen and crayon on found cardboard, 15 x 19 in. / 38 x 48 cm
He spends entire days in his room calmly immersed in his creations, and when his intensity wanes, he leaves his flat and takes a walk – often straying a long way from his neighbourhood – and returns with renewed energy and emotion to pick up where he left off. Since he began drawing in a systematic way, in around 2000, he has added piece after piece to his body of work, so creating an account of his life through fascinating, diverse images and symbols.
By YENISEL OSUNA MORALES
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #114.
