Nudes nominee

Arcano is an investigation about homosexuality in rural areas of Cuba. In the beginning, my openness on the gay issue in the face of social prejudice prevented me from getting models. I had to be discreet, almost clandestine and I got models but with the condition of not showing their faces, their identities. Not all the models let me go to their homes, the images were taken in the countryside, remote and hidden places, where many of the clandestine sexual encounters may take place. So I decided to make this clandestineness, this secrecy almost of a religious cloister, perceptible in my photographs. Place the model behind common woven fiber mesh, very typical of the rural world. This hid the identity of the person photographed and at the same time was separated, isolated. The body is veiled, partially illuminated, it can only be seen from the fragment. The result is images of baroque beauty that speak of the duality that these bodies experience. Then the printed image takes us almost to a very physical performative attitude, where we can only understand the scene from afar but we cannot avoid getting closer in search of details, the truth on the other side.

Cuban artist Jorge Otero Escobar (1982) was born in Havana, where he attended the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and received a BFA with a major in Engraving.
Otero’s work comprises performance, video art, installation and drawing. Photography is his main form of expression and the human body his favorite subject. Peasant symbols and research on themes such as identity and emigration have also been permanent topics.
Among his solo exhibitions stand out War Hero (2015) in Galería Habana, Cuba. To be highlighted among the group exhibitions that have featured his works is (Art)Xiomas– CUBA AHORA: The Next Generation (2016), in the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC. His artwork was chosen as the cover of SCOPE Art Show in Miami,FL, USA (2015). Also, he was represented by the Robert Miller Gallery, NY, where he exhibited Nuevos colores (New Colors) (2015). He is currently represented by NG Art gallery, Panama. Museum exhibitions as Ear To The Ground (2018), New Orleans Museum Of Art, USA; Un viaje de ida y vuelta (2019) Museo Domus Artium DA2, Salamanca, Spain; and Site de rencontre avec l'art | Cuba - Québec 2022, Musée D’ Art de Rouyn-Noranda, Canada, are part of his career.