Latin Art Core is pleased to showcase Perez Crespo Sculptures on Friday, June 17, 2022 at 7 PM in our heart of Little Havana.
We invite you to come, meet the artist and enjoy several sculptures full of shapes and infinite movement
The exhibition includes Roberto Perez Crespo’s 20-sculptures, showcasing his skill and absolute method of carving marble with the characteristic curves that distinguish this talented sculptor. In conjunction with the sculptures of this exhibition, the walls of the gallery will showcase the paintings of Latin American artists, among them Rafael Soriano, Roberto Matta, Jose Mijares, Jose Rosabal, Omar Rayo, and Mario Carreño.
The Artist reception and VIP opening will be at the Latin Art Core Gallery in Little Havana. Light bites and drinks will be served.
Roberto Perez Crespo Opening
The self-taught artist Roberto Perez Crespo, born in 1969 in Cuba and based in Miami, has been continuously working on sculptures for nearly three decades, following his artistic call after abandoning a completed technical education in auto mechanical service. Perez Crespo’s practice moves between modernity and contemporaneity by pursuing his creative impulse from an emotional starting point. These dynamic positions are partly directed by his religious approach to classic Judeo-Christian sculptural themes such as maternity, the female body, and romantic love. Over the years, his interests have shifted from academic figurative representation toward a stylized abstraction of the human body. He has formally explored the creation of less-defined anthropomorphic forms while displaying a deft ability to work in various marble types. Perez Crespo’s talent for working in marble is evidenced by his ability to sculpt the stone into endlessly fluid shapes and contours. He is able, instinctively and organically, to materialize and bring to life an anthropological world that blossoms out of his manual skills. Perez Crespo’s sculptures can be approached sensuously as tactile provocations that draw viewers into an intense, supple universe. In these latest sculptures, especially his series of Esculturas Blancas, Perez Crespo creates an imaginary ethos with metaphysical forms while taking significant steps toward an organic abstraction – a type of abstraction that still retains a solid figurative reference while outsourcing modernist elements from artists such as Henry Moore, Maria Martins, and Agustin Cardenas.
By Rafael Diazcasas
Independent Curator
Roberto Perez Crespo (Cuba, 1969)
As early as eleven, Perez Crespo joined his school’s young artistic sculpture club in Cuba. After finishing high school, he pursued an education as a car service specialist, entering a technical academy and graduating in 1988.
After years of technical studies, his interest in sculpture was still alive. So Perez Crespo started carving in wood with a self-made set of tools. Knowing his devotion, a friend introduced him to a communitarian sculpture workshop led by Osvaldo J. Llins and José Duverger Aliaga.
By 1991 he had abandoned his profession as an automobile specialist to devote himself to sculpture, founding his workshop and joining the Asociación Cubana de Artistas y Artesanos (ACAA by its Spanish name). Perez Crespo was invited to participate in exhibitions, the Havana Biennials, FIART (International Art Fair of Cuban Art Crafts), and FIARTL (Estoril International Art and Craft Fair, Portugal). In November 1994, his piece, El Viejo (The Old Man), won the Havana Galeria Forma award.
Toward the end of 2003, he moved to Miami, joined later by his family. The dramatic experience of family separation deepened his religious devotion, which led him to focus his creative forces on expressing these complex feelings. With help from Catholic Charities, Perez Crespo donated his work to the Miami Archdiocese in an event widely covered by the media. Afterward, he was awarded several commissions to work in local churches. The most relevant were St. Dominic, St. Martha, St. Coleman, Ermita de la Caridad, St. Andrews, Immaculate Concepcion, and St. Raymond of Peñafort.
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