Parallel Universes
The heaps of small cubes that I paint (sometimes sets of overlapping bubbles) to me symbolizes an arrange of boxes that could become a panoramic vision of any city, an interpretation of a busy street, a landscape, a warehouse.
I feel that each of these boxes contain the existencial experience of someone, a unique Universe, that as actors, we are constantly archiving inside of us a character played in each cycle of our lives, which is nothing more than our individual experience (because we all have or, in a way, what we are in ourselves is only an experience if anything).
This set of existences that I see is what I perceive as reality as a whole. Beyond quotes, bibliographies, cultural and ethnical distinctions, political or spiritual projections, a whole that in my perception includes all versions.
In that sense, and in my restlessness, I try to make my own interpretation which will always be only a fragment. Because so much of what we are able to see is, at all times, just a fragment.
Limits
Inside the platonic cavern we find a group of men. They have been there since childhood, their feet and neck tied. In the same position, unmoving, they look ahead as looking back has been rendered impossible. They are men that know only of shadows. If we were to untie them, if we forced them to get up and to direct their eyes to the light, wouldn't doing this be painful? And if they were to look straight into the light wouldn't they hurt their eyes and try to escape from the pain? However, were they to withstand the glare they would come out as better men, infinitely better...imits
In the end, there are no distorted versions since they all belong to reality. Each statement (assertion) puts forth a method, whether true or not. In a way, these are my works so far: an unforeseen road without beginning or end, truths and lies that are bared in the same stage. The differences and coexistence being, in my opinion, what is truly valuable.
Uncertain Limits
I see nature as a system poetically designed for everything to work in harmony, where every piece has its necessary purpose and where intentions outweigh responses
Last night's dream could become next morning's reality
Its the space between the apparent and the tangible that draws me. That infinite line marking the parallel nature of realities. In this sense, my works aims to traverse the rough path between the misfortune and hope of the human experience.
Distance
Distance is separation. The extent of that separation depends on the ability to recognize ourselves deep within and also within others, being able to see, or not, the pure essence that animates and connects all organisms. For me, that separation is closely linked to the notion of belonging.
Perhaps we are aware of it for the first time at the moment when the umbilical cord that linked us to our mother is severed. In the West, we may inherited this awareness of Adam and Eve. We stopped belonging from the moment we were banished from paradise. Banished and separated from our mother, we began the search for our identity, by closing the distance that separates us from ourselves. In homes and communities where adults and the elderly know who they are, where that banishment does not exist or has been healed, the search can be short.
In houses and societies where there are still many wounds to heal, people seek their identity from the gaze and perception of others. Social acceptance becomes the only form of belonging, depending on the values of that society. It depends whether the distance between each of us and our reflection is an abyss or if we can, as in the stories, take a step within our reflection to discover a universe in which we are all united.
THE GAME ( sculptures)
An object, created by the hand of men in order to satisfy "human needs": a chair, a table, a frame. Pieces of stories that seem overlooked and forgotten, obtain body and form to be used. Absent of sentimentalism, materials transformed into nothing, emptiness of an object to be consumed.
Wood, precious matter which embraces life itself, reshaped into something worn; ephemeral and limited in time, subject to the speed of modern life; a simple system to fill the hollowness that does not find any permanence in anything.
This is a work of redemption, of resurrection and of relapse to the essence. In the whim of calling them "stuff", and the will to push spirituality into the dead veins of discarded furniture, they become pieces that through aesthetics return to the beginning of the cycle of life.
They appear pure and fragile, waiting to be accepted or perhaps just flirting around, embracing the perpetual space and the idea of a second chance. They come alive at will and unfold arms, legs and faces excited to express and to belong to the world.
Ernesto Capdevila
Ernesto Capdevila was born in Havana, Cuba in 1970. He graduated in 1992 from the Design Institute of Havana. Capdevila continued his education in the arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Alejandro, also in Havana, graduating in 1997.
Capdevila worked as a member of the Experimental Graphic Workshop of Havana from 1993-1999, right before immigrating to Miami, Florida, where he continues to reside and working.
Ernesto Capdevila's work has been, and continues to be, shown in galleries throughout Europe, North, South, and Central America, as well as the Caribbean.
Personals Exhibitions
2017 THE GAME. Carlos Albizu University. Miami.fl.USA.
2014 The Bonfire of Vanities .Conde Contemporary .Miami ,fl.USA.
2013 TATTOO . MIAMI HISPANIC CULTURAL ARTS CENTER ,MIAMI ,FL .US.
2012. Elements . Jorgehuliangallery. Miami ,fl. USA.
2012 A Heavy Suit .Casa Turquesa art space. Miami,fl.
2011 Time. Accent Alternative Art Space.Miami.fl .USA.-
2009 Uncertain Testimonies . Blue Door Fine Art. Inc. Miami. Fl. USA.
2005 The tree of Life. D Padron Gallery Miami Fl. USA.
2004 Universal Balance. D Padron Gallery 2004. Miami Fl. USA.
2003 Objeto de Seduccion. D Padron Gallery Miami fl. USA.
2002 Objeto de Seduccion. Havana Gallery. Chicago IL. USA.
1999 Los malos siempre andan cerca .Galleria Habana Libre Trip.Habana .Cuba.
1998 Los malos siempre andan cerca l. Gaspar Center. Berlin .Alemania. Juntos y Revueltos ll.Galeria La Acacia. La Habana.Cuba.
1996 Secretos del Silencio. Galeria del Grabado.La Habana.Cuba.
1991 Juntos y Revueltos. Galleria 23 y12.La habana. Cuba.
Group Exhibitions and Events
2025 Palette Project. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. Miami.Fl.USA.
2024 The space in between . Conde contemporary. Miami. fl. USA.
2022 Affordable Art Fair.New York. NY.USA.
2019 No method to our madness.Conde Contemporary. Miami. USA. Art Los Angeles Contemporary. Los Angeles.Ca.USA.
2016 Affordable Art Fair. NY.USA. Art spot. Miami. fl.USA. Art Palm Beach 2016.West Palm Beach. Fl. USA.
2015 ArtSpot International.Spectrum .Miami . Fl.USA. Convite la danza. Miami Hispanic Cultural Art Center. Miami .Fl.USA.
2014 Spectrum Miami.Miami , Fl .USA. Art San Diego.San Diego ,Ca.USA. Miami Art + Design,Miami.Fl.USA. Miami Int Art Fair , Blink group gallery , Miami. fl. USA .
2012 Fans Forever . MDC MUSEUM OF ART + DESING . Miami ,fl ,UAS.
2011 The Collection part1,Artdealermiami Gallery,Miami,fl,USA. Irreversible group show. .Miami,fl,USA.
2010 Havana Capital's Punishment .Accent Alternative Art Space.Miami,fl,USA. Arte X Comida.Leal fine art Gallery.Miami Fl.USA.
2009 FIART International Fair.Sd.R Dominicana. No more dreams.Galeria Bodden.SD.R Dominicana. Sumarte.Museo de Arte Contemporaneo del Salvador. SS.Salvador
2008 Step by Step auction. Durban SegniniGallery.Miami FL.USA.
2004 Transitions. J.B.Records Art Gallery.NY.USA.
2002 Cuban Art.Studio 702.Chicago IL.USA.
2000 4X4.Sourthart Gallery.Miami FL.USA.
1999 Congo to Cuba.International Images sa.Pensilvania.USA.
1997 Luz Insular. Galeria La Rama dorada..C P.Panama. Encuentro de Grabado.La Habana 1997.Centro de desarrollo de las artes visuales.H.Cuba. VI Bienal De La Habana.Taller Experimental de Grafica de la Habana.CH.Cuba.
1996 Mi magnum y yo.Gleria 23 y 12.CH.Cuba.
1995 Cultura cubana en Mexico.Univercidad Autonoma de Mexico.DF.Mexico. Cultura cubana en Portugal. Coliseo de Porto.P. Portugal. XXXIII Aniversario del Taller Experimental de Grafica de La Habana.CH.Cuba.