Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal (Cuba, 1955)

A prominent avant-garde artist of the contemporary Cuban scene, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal is also a priest of Ifá, an Afro-Cuban religion. Nurtured by traditions of African origin, his body of work provides a powerful intellectual incentive to approach the complexities and the beauty of the Yoruba culture which travelled from Nigeria to Cuba during centuries of slavery.

In his work, Olazábal reappropriates the languages and methodologies of traditional Western cultures which he combines with the local context of religious fusions to express universal wisdom. His monumental paintings and his drawings represent mysterious, profound and painful feelings by depicting symbolic, allegorical, and often metaphorical facets of life.

Through layers of hybrid and composite approaches stemming from the conceptual formulation of his kaleidoscopic personal iconographical journey, Olazábal has gained a unique position within the panorama of contemporary Cuban art, marked by his exaltation of the edges of religious syncretism.

When Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal entered the artistic scene in the mid-1980s, the knowledge of Ifá began to gradually move beyond the esoteric domain, where it had remained under the sole control of the babalawos, and thus started circulating within the more liberal artistic circles. The knowledge of Ifá became the subject of public exhibits and art criticism, being reproduced in catalogues and magazines, thereby fully becoming a constituent of contemporary Cuban culture.

The artist actively contributes to this emancipation and diversity.

SANTIAGO RODRÍGUEZ OLAZÁBAL

1955

CUBA

Las Marcas de la Noche #02

75 x 105 cm

Black Ink & Red Thread on Guarro Poster Board

2020