Roberto Diago (Havana, 1971) is one of the contemporary Cuban artist who has enjoyed more critical and commercial success. His paintings are distinguished by being very conceptual works in which the artist creates a great symbolic value. Are spread in countries like the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Monaco and Chile. Is considered one of the most successful creators from Cuban of the past 20 years. His work has been marked by a strong anthropological and social dimension, from which delves into the universe of the subject of the black race, religious beliefs, its architectural and urban environment, its utopias and frustrations, even the prejudices that surround it. He is an artist who prefers hard thematic issues and ordinary materials. Slavery is a theme to which he returns again and again. Creates his paintings and conceptual installations with things he finds around his neighborhood either driftwood, plastic bottles, rusty metal or other recyclable materials charges some symbolic feature of its works. The black color of the bright light, camel, the darkest part of the housing and red, offers a ritual. His large formats, sometimes almost excessive, has to do with the baroque nature of the relationship between man and the splendid weather, sometimes so much aggressive due so much light and color. Sometimes it is proposed that the work be imposed by force to the viewer, almost mutilate it. Also, by juxtaposing elements creates scenarios where combining figurative and social. From creating an aesthetic of precariousness has offered a number of excellent results and satisfaction, it becomes transgressor of anachronistic schemes and myths of commercial consumption. As such, he´s made more sensitive to the nature of the ethnic with the necessary elements for its genuine representation.
"El Arte que crea Roberto Diago es una genialidad. Pero tiene algo muy peculiar, solo despues de hablar con el entendernos la profundida de su obra."
Michel Delgado Castillo