Alberto Lescay. Cuban sculptor, painter and draftsman. Founder of the Columna Juvenil de Escritores y Artistas de Oriente (Youth Column of Writers and Artists of the East) and the Hermanos Saiz Association. Member of the National Association of Writers and Artists of Cuba and the International Association of Plastic Artists.
Lescay has made several personal exhibitions and has participated in multiple group exhibitions in Cuba and other countries where he has obtained numerous and important awards and recognitions, which give his work a high esteem in the contemporary Cuban and universal plastic arts.
Painter and sculptor, fundamentally, he has worked the different techniques in these manifestations and has appeared in collective and individual exhibitions throughout Cuba and the world. Sculpture has been one of the manifestations in which he has worked with greater achievements throughout his career; one of the best known is the statue of Maceo, located in the Revolution Square in Santiago, and which had been conceived as a project by the architect Antonio Quintana Simonetti, who made the preliminary scheme of the Antonio Maceo Square in 1985.
Alberto Lescay, premio nacional de Artes Plásticas 2021
With the execution of the sculpture of Maceo, he and a group of sculptors began the experience of the Caguayo Foundation in 1995, which currently leads events on sculpture in Las Tunas, Camagüey, Santiago de Cuba and Havana; besides being linked to other associations such as CODEMA -the Advisory Council for the Development of Monumental and Environmental Sculpture- which sponsors the René Valdez Cedeño International Sculpture Symposium in Santiago de Cuba.
One of the distinguishing conceptual elements of Lescay is the use of history in the theme of his works, as well as the indirect or direct reference to the Latin American ideology that has permeated both his sculptural and plastic works.
His painting is currently characterized by postmodernism in which abstract elements stand out in the backgrounds and the overlapping of brushstrokes, as a counterpart to the figuration that the tradition of drawing left by the Repin Academy marked his formative period. He also cultivates mural painting, employs inks, rice paper as in his exhibition Somos from December 17 to 21, 2015 during the Jazz Plaza festival, among other materials. He has also participated in the editions of the International Meeting of Mural Painting, which takes place in Santiago de Cuba.
He has cultivated small-format sculpture, more traditional statuary and monumental sculpture, although installations and sculptural installation are part of the more contemporary language he has used in his latest exhibitions and shows; such as the Somos Project founded in 2014 from an exhibition during the Romerías de mayo (May Processions) in the city of Holguin. The representative sculptures are numerous, the Che of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba; the women of his statuary Monument Rosa La Bayamesa, 2001; and the Marti, less academic and more abstract.
His sculptures are placed in the Prado de las Esculturas in Santiago’s Baconao Park, the nation’s largest open-air collection, which emerged from the International Symposium of Environmental Sculpture in March 1988 from the initiative of monumental sculptor Augusto Rivero. The pieces include Frida, by Mexican Manuel de Jesus, the Roots by Jorge Arango, the Portico by Ricardo Amaya and one by Caridad Ramos.
Professional activity
He participated
- In the World Meeting of Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity. Caracas, Venezuela. 2005
- In the inauguration of La Capilla del Hombre. Quito, Ecuador. 2003
Holds Sculpture Workshop in Curacao. 2000
Creates and presides over the Caguayo Foundation for the Monumental and Applied Arts, Cuba. 1995
Establishes the «René Valdés» Monumental and Applied Arts Workshop. Santiago de Cuba. 1990 /95
Presides over the «Luis Díaz Eduardo» Cultural Workshop, Santiago de Cuba. 1981 /90
Presides over the «Hermanos Saiz» Brigade of Writers and Artists of Santiago de Cuba and is a member of its National Council. 1981 /85
Delegate to the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow, Russia. 1985
Professor of Monumental Sculpture. Academy of Plastic Arts «José Joaquin Tejada», Santiago de Cuba. 1979/84
Co-founder of the Tele Rebelde Channel, Santiago de Cuba. 1968
Co-founder of the Youth Column of Writers and Artists of the East, Cuba. 1965
Awards and distinctions
1966
Award in Painting. Provincial Salon of Plastic Arts, Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
Award in Poster Contest on Camilo and Che. National School of Art. Havana City, Cuba.
1977
Award in Painting. Provincial Salon of Plastic Arts. Santiago de Cuba.
Prize in Drawing and Sculpture. First Mention in Painting, Salon de la Ciudad. Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
Prize. 8th Provincial Salon «30 de Noviembre». Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design. Santiago de Cuba.
1981
Mention National Contest for the Monument to Che and the children. Lenin Park. Havana. Cuba.
1982
Drawing Award. City Hall, Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
Prize in the Competition for the Project of the Antonio Maceo Revolution Square of Santiago de Cuba. Monument to Antonio Maceo. (Leads Multidisciplinary Team)
1983
Drawing Award. Provincial Youth Salon. Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
Prize in Sculpture. UNEAC Salon, Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
1984
Drawing Award. Youth Salon of Plastic Arts, Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
Award in Environmental Sculpture Contest. He makes the Totem Sculpture located in the exterior area of the Center of Architecture Projects (EMPROY 15), Santiago de Cuba.
Prize in the International Contest for the Pictorial Mural on Peace in the 12th World Festival of Youth and Students. Moscow.
Prize in Painting. Provincial Salon «30 de Noviembre». Center of Visual Arts Santiago de Cuba.
1992
Drawing Award. UNEAC Salon, Oriente Gallery, Santiago de Cuba.
1995
April Award. For the Sculpture of Julio Antonio Mella. Awarded by the Young Communist League (UJC in Spanish).
Most relevant recognitions
1994. Replica of Machete of Generalissimo Maximo Gomez by the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.
1994. Distinction for National Culture.
1996. Replica of the Granma yacht.
1996. Juan Marinello Order. Awarded by the Council of State.
1999. Nominated to the National Plastic Arts Award.
2000. Jose Maria Heredia Plaque. Awarded by the Provincial Board of Culture.
Works placed in Cuba and abroad
Head of King. Museum of Fine Arts. Ukraine.
Statue of the Heroic Guerrilla Ernesto Guevara. (Bronze). Hospital that bears his name. Las Tunas, Cuba.
Monument to Maurice Bishop in Cuba. (Bronze and wood). Meeting of Anti-imperialist Intellectuals of the Caribbean. Casa del Caribe, Santiago de Cuba.
1984. Ceramic and metal mural: Caribe Restaurant. Guantanamo, Cuba.
1985. Mural on Peace. House of the Union of Painters. Moscow.
Mural and Ceramic Works. South Children’s Polyclinic, Santiago de Cuba.
1991. Monument to General Antonio Maceo. (Bronze). Homonymous Square, Santiago de Cuba.
Dynamics of the Atom Mural (Ceramic and Stainless Steel). Facade of the Institute of Medical Biophysics. University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba.
Sculptural Garden of Love. (Bronze). Heredia Theater, Santiago de Cuba.
Monument to the Warrior Spirit, symbol of the City of Puerto Cabello (bronze) Puerto Cabello, Carabobo State. Venezuela.
XV Bienal de Pintura Mural InterNos en Santiago de Cuba
Comandante Juan Almeida honored in Santiago de Cuba
1997 Monument to the Runaway Slave. Bronze and iron. Town of El Cobre, Santiago de Cuba. Che Sculpture. Bronze. Gardens of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Havana, Cuba.
