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José Luís Hernández Castillo  "KLLO"

° Havana, February 15 1964.

The eyes of various personages, clowns among others, populate the universe of Jose Luís Hernandez Castillo (Kllo). Without losing touch with the so-called  classic subjects Kllo introduces the luminosity of the color in to dark scenes of his work that is greatly influenced by the Baroque.

His art allows us to appreciate the mixture of baroque or the Renaissance with contemporary "cubania". It invites us to a suggestive reflection using merely those elements that make up our daily surroundings, with enhances by a touch of light and color. Giving these elements of daily reality a new interpretative shade as do works of universal art. "Recontextualizing" in this manner he time we are living in, transferring the present situations to new scenes filled with old protagonists. His art therefore forces us to face with a new view the images of the known objects of our daily reality. To rethink those emblematic elements already seated in our visual memory  that often have become symbols with an identity of their own that are somehow is rooted in our memory. In this way Kllo solves the dilemma of one of his more frequent obsessions.

The use of the spatula and of glaze color ("veladuras") give the synthesis of his brushstrokes a life of their own, placing in evidence the wealth of the textures and forms at the basis of his expressive power.