Curriculum Vitae

Eliana Rodriguez Iturbe

DOB: February 24, 1983. Havana, Cuba.

Studies:

1995 – Foto reporter certification at the U.P.E.C.(Unión de Periodistas y Escritores de Cuba / Union of journalists and writers of Cuba) Professor Felix Arencibia

2005- BFA Degree from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, NewYork, NY.

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Group Exhibitions

2005 - “Three Magic Kings” Houghton Gallery, New York, NY

2005 - “Gangas de NJ” Estudio Abierto Gallery, Union City, NJ

2005 - “Latin American Art” Jadite Gallery, New York, NY

2007 - “Three Cuban Painters” RK Gallery, Union City, NJ

Solo Exhibitions

2008 - “Cuban Painters” www.iturbecubangallery.com (opening 20th March, 09)

Note from the Artist

I doubt this will be an erudite discourse on art, my work or me. Like my thoughts, my work is constantly changing. Imagine the challenge it is to write about it. At this stage in my career is still daring to come to direct statements and or conclusions.

One thing is certain; witnessing and living in a world where an irrational displacement of nature is taking place has been a very relevant aspect in my artistic practice. Humanity has failed to strike a balance; man made has replaced the natural.

The survival of the world now hangs on a silk thread. As an artist and an aware human being living in this global crisis I am deeply affected. Nature, the single most influential element in all off history of art, is now more fragile than ever. I am forced to consume it thru television like a soap opera. To me these are signs of humanity lost in steel and concrete jungles with an abstract concept of the natural.

I am part of such vast and complex ecosystem but so little of it have I seen in its natural state. It is in pet shops, parks and zoos the closest I have been to the exotics. In my work I create a fantastic zoology. This is a world of fantasy where dream and reality are faithfully fused. My work is not in any way an experiment, a byproduct of one or a research. It is my expression of saying the things I want and conveying the materialization of dreams. The characters are a reflection of my mind. My vision, frustrations, feelings and my indigestion with the world are all unloaded on my canvases.

In the history of art I have a long list of great masters that have been crucial in my development as an artist. Picasso, Guston, Rousseau, Bosch, Botero, Orozco, Bacon, Frida , Siqueiros ,El Greco, Rauschenberg, Velazquez, Kooning, Goya, Tapies, Golub, Boyes, Clemente just to mention a few. Never the less, there is no other point of departure than my reality, my thought, my dreams and my consciousness. Within the history of Contemporary Art I am not bound by any movement. I feel like the Tropicalistas back in the 60’s in Brazil. I am like Oswald de Andrade’s cultural cannibal.

My development as an artist has been shaped by the innumerable positive and negative events received throughout the course of my life and a non stop bombardment of images, ideas and concepts. As a young woman I had the opportunity to come to this country, a country that gave me access to an education of the highest level and possibilities of a future full of opportunities that most likely would have been limited where I come from.

If the opportunity is given, it would be an honor to be accepted to the fine arts program at Columbia to be part of a stimulating community of mentors and peers. The school has developed an exceptionally strong program which I believe encourages the development of individual and their art through and enriched environment of peer contact. Not to mention a knowledgeable and experienced faculty. I would like the opportunity to take full advantage of the exposure to the schools wealth of resources renowned art and architecture historians, literary critics, archeologist and theorist. For me this environment is a privileged and fertile ground to refine and expand my ideas.

Eliana Rodriguez-Iturbe