Elio Rodriguez Cuban-Spanish, b. 1966

Elio Rodriguez was born in 1966, and lives and works in Spain.  His practice is engaged with the system of judgments about a person, a culture or phenomenon.  Tapping the prism of Caribbean popular culture, its underlying humor and clichés formed about the culture, he builds witty and sensual works that seemingly incarnate that reality, and subtly and continuously question it.  The ambivalence of genres is key to understanding the essence of his work. Rodriguez conceives a game of illusions with the viewer using the language of form and surface — and ultimately reveals traces of doubt in the identity of a concept or an image.  His practice encompasses painting, installations, sculptures, prints, ceramics, and soft sculpture interacting with chosen objects, his  style referring to marks of Caribbean popular craftwork.