Latin American Atrists

3 Pages 700 Words

Alexis Leyva Machado, also known as “Kcho”, was born in 1970 on the Isla de la Juventud, a small island off the southern coast of Cuba. Today he is known as the island’s most internationally established artist since Wiferdo Lam. His sculptures are known for not only his hidden political meaning but also his use of materials out of the norm. He uses left over materials that have to do with the water to make his sculptures. He uses such things as old rowboats, fishing nets, oars, rafts, and other similar objects in his art. Kcho comments on the themes of his work stating “Where I grew up, all the limits were liquid.”
He has been featured in more than 50 group shows and over 15 solo exhibitions around the world. He has one many awards such as the Saiz brothers prize in 1990, a scholarship from the Ludwig foundation, and the Unesco prize in 1995 awarded from Geneva, Switzerland.
Although Kcho is from Cuba and is under a repressive regime his work has transcended a dictatorship country and is known in the U.S. and abroad. He was able to travel outside his home country in 1992 for the first time to participate in shows in Spain, Mexico, Holland and Belgium. Sly political references are blended into his work such as in one of his pieces from the Madrid show. This work was a series of drawings of docks, each dock in the shape of a letter that spelled out Elian, the name of the Cuban boy that survived a boat wreck and was therefore in the spotlight of mass media attention for months.
Kcho currently resides in Havana and continues to put out impressive art works that are laden with his feelings and political statements that bring up to $4,000 for a drawing and up to $75,000 for just a small sculpture. His work can be viewed at
www.ciac.ca/expos/kcho.html.


Carmen Borrase Povedano de Mills is a painter born in Costa Rica. The artist uses fabrics and other elements such as strings, roses, and religious medals in her p...