Galería Éxodo is featuring work by Cuban artista Johnny Somoza Hernández. Born in Havana, Cuba, Johnny Somoza (1973) lives and works in Havana. Rather than an artist, Somoza is a humorist with a vocation for painting. He recently took part in the Bienal Internacional de Humorismo in Cuba, where he was noticed for his satirical self-representation.

The same comic vein runs through his pastel sketches, which ironically reinterpret contemporary motifs or themes from the history of art. For example, his work “El simulador” is a modern parody of the famous work by Jacques Louis David in which Somoza, instead of Marat, appears draped, lying in a sports shoe. The self-portrait of the artist becomes the mechanism used to depict the tics and manias of contemporary man through caricature. In “Qué manera de besarte, llorona” [What a Way to Kiss You, Cry-baby], he sets out a series of sixteen portraits of his own face, one after the other, with his lips puckered up in a kiss; in “Perfil contemporáneo” [Contemporary Profile] and “Tragando narices” [Swallowing Noses], where he is wearing a strange fake pointed nose like Pinocchio’s.

Galería Éxodo carries Somoza’s series “Criaturas insulares,” “La danza del equilibrio,” “Su vuelo siempre sera húmedo,” and “Disfraz para danza del emigrante” (shown here).

The gallery is located at 200B Calle del Cristo (corner of Calle San Francisco) in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and may also be contacted at galeriaexodo@gmail.com.

For more information, see http://www.galeriaexodo.com/