KCHO (Alexis Leyva Machado) appeared on the Cuban art scene in the early '90s, during an extended period of economic crisis caused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Comecon. An epoch defined by food and fuel shortage, pushing the country's people into deep poverty, this period has become characterized by severe migration, as many tried to flee the country in the hope of a better future. The work of KCHO portrays the drama of Cuban migration, with a particular focus on the perilous voyage by sea, usually tied to the fleeting of those that were most vulnerable. The dangers of escaping through the sea's wilderness are represented throughout the artist's work, whether in his installation-based works or his works on canvas, such as - Untitled, 2003
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Evoking the sense of a shipwreck, the work alludes to the isolation marked by the geographical limits of water boundaries. With boats being the main method of escape from Cuba, boats and vessels become on the one hand a symbol of escape and freedom, while on the other a sign of death and abandonment, thus portraying a grim scenario of what can happen in the vast immensity of the sea, as depicted in the scattered pieces of boats and vessels wedged in the crown of a tree. The abandoned figure with a vessel echoes determination and despair, materialized further through the drawing's sketchiness and its scared-like surface. The tall tree echoes associations with Brancusi's infinity column's formal features, a symbol of modernist utopia and a theme explored by the artist in some of his earlier works. - Untitled, 2003
is an embodiment of nostalgia towards a tragic past, a monument to personal utopias, and a sad embodiment of broken dreams.



MC