Big Cat, 2019

‘Big Cat is inspired by street life scenes in Cuba, and the Santero religious rituals, including animal sacrifices.

I wanted to have an exploded narrative and break the linear space for mystery and ambiguity. The abstract motifs are associated with ostensibly figurative subjects.

I lived the endless food market of Palermo; I also lived near Electric Avenue, the popular street market of Brixton: my work comes from these popular atmospheres. Recently my work has been introducing characters sitting on a chair in a poetic contemporary environment: a kitchen, a bird market, a butchery… The narratives in my work look like a scene that could inspire a film.

What I’m looking for in my work is for it to be the most full of life possible. I like to navigate in troubled waters, between the real and the imaginary; between dramatic criminality and joyful optimism.

Ambiguity and rhythm for me are the key to a lively work. My work is at the crossroads of the “real world”, which is for me a lively, popular and spontaneous world, and a pictorial language far from all sophistications or mannerisms.’