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Cuba Arte Contemporáneo, Galería Avistamientos | Contemporary Cuban Art, Avistamientos Gallery Cuba Arte Contemporáneo, Galería Avistamientos | Contemporary Cuban Art, Avistamientos Gallery
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José Emilio Fuentes Fonseca (JEFF)

There is no naive art. Undoubtedly, the artist assumes infinite roles in the embodiment of concepts and artistic forms. The apparent ingenuity could be one of the possible positions when it comes to interpretative splitting. Then comes the richest way of the artistic reality: its subliminal, subversive and reflective relation with its environment. The ideological romp with certain social structures does not escape such intentions. In fact, these structures are one of the key points of the artist when he fixates in understanding the medium. One could say there is an artistic complexity that has its genesis in the combination of art with other socio-psychological disciplines.

José Emilio Fuentes Fonseca (JEFF) gives contemporary Cuban art one of the happiest views in the complexity of art when it encounters other spheres of human thought. In his works lies a sharp psychological chronology of the child who becomes an artist. Such a chronology cannot, and should not, escape a series of nightmares that enrich the conformation of a universe buried under layers of dead days. The permanence of the infant’s imaginary in the production of this child-artist/artist-adult/adult-child (we will never know the exact composition), makes the work of JEFF an exquisite children’s album that evades congested happiness to make evident, in the adversity inherent to ingenuity, the true human growth.

The aesthetic resources cannot be other than those that derive from a venomous nostalgic act. They show up in his assemblies and sculptures; per example, the povera visuality that starts from the incorporation of the most dissimilar objects and materials found in his path: plastic, bottle caps, wood, disdained objects. Sort of artifacts that make up puppets, “toys” that proclaim stages of life diminished by childhood and hardship. This visual approach of JEFF suggests a type of aesthetic preciousness: the material as a romantic and bucolic element. However, the artist intuits that under that seemingly childish trance essential to his pieces, there is much unraveling of a not only personal story, but a much wider one that embraces the collective memory of a whole country.

JEFF well knows that, at first, every naive act comprises a strictly happy world view, in the end an instinctive act of what we should be in or for the world. Then, to be good like “ingenuous” children, would be the natural order of our existence; much so like art in its purest and most impetuous form. However, the artist understands that there is no way to maintain the purity things over time. After all, its contamination or mutation, being illogical or unnatural might be our configuration by default.

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  • Jeff Koons draws his art from popular culture subjects and objects especially advertising, to pore it into art; much like José Emilio Fuentes Fonseca (JEFF) takes the imagery of the child to translate it into the adults’. Few would argue that JEFF’s inflated metal sculptures are among the best works in the contemporary Cuban art.
  • Jeff Koons emerged in the 1980s as an innovative sculptor close to the naïve and outsider tendencies in art. Working with childhood icon figures as the paper boat. In Latin American art the work with inflated metal has few exponents and JEFF is the bold Cuban sculptor who saw its many possibilities and used them to his favor to create really masterpieces of art.
  • The art of JEFF Koons meets the Cuban art of JEFF on the more cerebral quality of art, contrasting with the rest of the artistic productions of international contemporary art. Jeff Koons derives inspiration from inflatable plastic toys, porcelain trinkets and other items of everyday life. JEFF (José Emilio Fuentes Fonseca) takes similar items to bring a closer look to childhood. It’s incalculable how much of an impact JEFF’s inflated metal sculptures have had on art history. Few would argue that are among the best masterpieces in the contemporary art world.
  • Contemporary Cuban painting has one of the most committed positions with its environment, which is why the international market bets for this manifestation as a socio-historical document of a nation.
  • Contemporary Cuban art incorporates a historical-artistic process that was unleashed at the end of the seventies and represents one of the richest and most controversial events in the Cuban cultural scene.
  • Universal art, the art we all understand and that moves us all, is made of universal themes. The vision of a child, innocent, pure, curious and happy attracts everyone, every time. JEFF is that sincere child in his creations, and in his life.
  • Las artes visuales contemporáneas cubanas se inscriben entre lo más radical e interesante de la cultura cubana actual. Podría decirse que se trata de un fenómeno procesual en el que existe una búsqueda constante de lo estético, lo político y lo social. La obra de JEFF califica dentro del movimiento denominado arte “ingenuo”, refiriéndose, sin duda, a las similitudes visuales con el movimiento artístico “naíf” (del francés naïf = ingenuo), o el “marginal”.
  • Contemporary Cuban visual arts are among the most radical and interesting of current Cuban culture. One could say it is a procedural phenomenon, in which there is a constant search for aesthetics, the politics and the society.
  • Pop art has a tradition in Cuba that goes back to the 60’s, JEFF inserts himself in that tradition in a singular way, mixing it with the naive and putting it into sculpture and installation.
  • Painting within contemporary Cuban art has one of the most committed positions with its environment, which is why the international market bets for this manifestation as a socio-historical document of a nation.
  • In the 60’s and 70’s Cuban art was full of renowned and innovative creators, from conceptualism, going thru pop and neo-expressionism, and arriving to hyperrealism in the 90’s.
  • Cuban contemporary art has become noticeable at the hands of several artists of the courtyard, and perhaps one of the most recognized is JEFF.
  • La obra de JEFF califica dentro del movimiento denominado arte “ingenuo”, refiriéndose, sin duda, a las similitudes visuales con el movimiento artístico “naíf” (del francés naïf = ingenuo), o el “marginal”.
  • Pop art has a tradition in Cuba that goes back to the 60’s, JEFF inserts himself in that tradition in a singular way, mixing it with the naive and putting it into sculpture and installation.
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