ROBERTO FABELO (Camagüey, Cuba, 1950).

ROBERTO FABELO (Camagüey, Cuba, 1950). "Bird Woman", 2012. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Attached certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. Size: 120 x 75 cm. Considered as one of the most versatile and recognised artists in Cuba, Roberto Fabelo displays in his art a splendid duality between the animal world and the human figure. Surrealistic in nature, Fabelo's art is completely identifiable: women halfway between the dream world and reality, combining beautiful elements intrinsic to nature - such as shells, scales, bird wings and insects or bird heads - with scaly mermaid tails and other fantastic animals. In the present canvas, Fabelo displays his most complex imaginary by showing us a naked female body, halfway between the real and the imaginary, combining pleasure and aesthetic displeasure, sensuality and its opposite. The woman depicted holds a winged frame on her shoulders, and maintains her anonymity thanks to a mask that covers her face, hiding her true personality, her most intimate self. Roberto Fabelo is a painter, draughtsman, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. His childhood was spent in his hometown, where he was constantly drawing on different papers found anywhere. His passion for drawing - or "grafomania", as he calls it - originated at that time, and what began as a playful action gradually became a vice as he realised that any medium was good for letting his imagination flow. He belonged to the first generation of ENA graduates in the seventies (once described as the "generation of certain hope") and to that of the ISA in the eighties, when he acquired notable visibility on the art scene. Since then, she has developed a fruitful professional career that encompasses practically all manifestations of the visual arts. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and the International Association of Plastic Artists (AIAP). In 1996 he was selected for the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Plastic Arts in Paris, France; and since 2002 his Self-Portrait has been part of the permanent collection of the Galleria Degli Uffizi in Florence, Italy, home to one of the oldest and most famous art collections in the world. He has been awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas, 2004, as well as the Distinción por la Cultura Nacional, both by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Cuba. Fabelo has also been awarded the Abel Santamaría Medal, the Alejo Carpentier Medal and the Juan Marinello Order by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. He has also received the Commemorative Plaque for the 480th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana and the Plaque of the City of the Community of Andalusia, Spain. In 2007 the Rector's Office of the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana awarded him the special category of consulting professor. He also holds the Diploma for Artistic Merit from the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana. Among the more than twenty prizes received during his career are the Acquisition Prize at the III Triennial of Contemporary Art in New Delhi, India, 1978; the Drawing Prize at Intergraphik, Berlin, Germany; the Prize at the IX Drawing Exhibition, Rijeka, Yugoslavia; and the International Drawing Prize at the First Havana Biennial, all in 1984. In 1993 Fabelo received the First Prize at the XI International Drawing Biennial in Cleveland, Great Britain; and in 1996 the First Prize at the I Ibero-American Watercolour Biennial, Viña del Mar, Chile. He has had 42 personal exhibitions in eleven countries: United States, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Sweden and Switzerland.