As part of Las Tunas’ Culture Day, the exhibition "Apocalyptic Awakening" by local visual artist Luis García Hidalgo opened at the Provincial Committee of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC, in Spanish) gallery.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- Through 17 works, the artist engages viewers in a dialogue about caring for the environment and the dangerous paths that humankind often takes, destroying the world in its wake.

According to our colleague Yanelis Rodríguez Escamuchero, who wrote the catalog text, “visual artist Luis García Hidalgo stands out as an architect of extraordinary visions. His works, imbued with a feverish surrealism, evoke universes where human despair, pollution, and decay are transformed into fantastical creatures and nightmarish landscapes.”

In this exhibition, the artist used pen and ink, “an instrument of precision and patience,” as Escamuchero puts it. “I try to get people to analyze what’s happening… I bring into my works beings that seem to emerge from the darkness, but I use them to stimulate thought and make people reflect on the threats that surround us: wars, pollution, epidemics… It’s a warning against wrongdoing and a call for brotherhood and peace,” said García Hidalgo.

Thus, using ink on cardstock, Luis creates his own narratives filled with codes that, though surreal, convey a real message. By contrast, the nib is a difficult medium and rarely practiced in the Balcón de Oriente (Cuban Eastern Balcony, though some artists like him, Niurka Casanova and Ricardo Salgado, master it brilliantly.

"Apocalyptic Awakening" is, as Yanelis said, “an aesthetic experience that challenges complacency and shakes the conscience. Every line, every shadow, becomes a heartbeat of anguish and resistance: fish devouring fish, specters emerging from the shadows, symbols intertwining in a dance of the sublime and the grotesque.”