Kcho

Art Brokerage: Kcho Cuban Artist: b. 1970. Internationally recognized for his monumental and evocative sculpture, installations, paintings and prints, Kcho is an artist inextricably connected to his childhood home, Isla de la Juventud (Island of Youth), Cuba, located miles from the mainland. Water defines all aspects of Kcho’s life and his oeuvre is populated with sculpture constructed from found objects associated with the sea: boats, propellers, driftwood, inner tubes and fishing nets. He frequently depicts these objects in his canvases and graphic work, creating a veritable lexicon of island life where all residents must contend with the ocean. Abroad Kcho’s artwork is interpreted as protest to the internal regime in Cuba, as a statement of the population’s struggle to escape a stifling life from a suffocating government. However, the artist manages to coexist amicably with those he appears to criticize by explaining that the elements that populate his compositions are all related to life on an island, any island. Kcho does not make overt political statements, but internationally one can see his work as a plea for reasoning, for understanding the motivations of humans fleeing, departing and searching. Kcho’s work may be found in the collections of many public institutions, including Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Sofia Imber, Caracas; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.