Artist Profile | Cartoon & Caricature

Reinaldo Hernández Valera

He recently mentioned Valera's name to several friends and they immediately identified him due to the singularity of his graphic work, more related to pictorial visuality, a figuration that, of course, is attractive to many. However, beyond the attraction that he may arouse, his work is not alien to a desire to vindicate thought through caricature. This interview with Reinaldo Hernández Valera was carried out shortly before the inauguration of the Phase 3 Humor Exhibition, proposed by Ares and executed by Lisset Alonso Compte at the renowned "Wifredo Contemporary Art Center", from where the Biennial of La Havana and the institution where very important exhibitions have been exhibited, already historical due to their pre-eminence in the field of visual arts in Cuba. “In general, the tendency is to make a conceptual humor that is not to laugh out loud, but to make you think and send a message. According to my concept, humor has a weight in communication and is enormously useful for transmitting ideas. Here the use of editorial humor has been lost a little or a lot, because many may not give importance to the title of an editorial, but it must be taken into account that the synthesis power of graphic humor is extraordinary, it guides the reader what the article is about. content of the article and invites you to read the texts”. The last art exhibition of the Cuban painter Reinaldo Hernández Valera, was held on March 5 at the TAP Gallery in Sydney. The colorful and evocative collection of paintings was viewed by a diverse gathering of art aficionados and supporters of Cuba, joined by the Consul General of the Republic of Cuba in Australia, Nélida Hernández Carmona. Valera's paintings are a vivacious snapshot of life in Cuba, comprising portraits of Cuban women and men painted in a cartoonish style. With vivid colors and strong outlines, her subjects often display the weariness of the everyday, sometimes with an iconic Cuban cigar. Each one shows her character in the exaggerated lines that define her identity. “I was very pleased to exhibit here, at the “Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center”, because what we do is not a minor art at all, the truth is that it is very difficult to make graphic humor. It is about making a forceful drawing and at the same time according to an idea. It also implies looking for the absurd. There are cartoons that are only to provoke laughter, but others are to provoke reflection. I particularly like the latter. The cartoonist has to be very informed, he cannot not be. Even because we are not an encyclopedia, and if you have an idea, to complete it you have to look for information and study. In that sense our work is very interesting. I really love. I, for example, make a lot of sketches, I am very inclined towards plastic, that's why I don't usually work on murals, but rather on sketches to create the works”.