Salvador Gonzáles Escalona

Salvador at work in "Callejón de Hamel" with his painting "Makuto" (2008).

Salvador Gonzáles Escalona, born October 21, 1948 in Camagüey, Cuba, is a Cuban painter, muralist and sculptor. His artist name is Salvador.

His work is known as an "afro-cuban" style. He describes his work as a mix of surrealism, cubism and abstract art.

Salvador has no formal art education, but as early as in 1968 he had his first art exhibition "Arte Popular Cubano" in "Museo de Artes Decorativas", Havana.

In the 1980s he had a series of art exhibitions at Cuba. In 1986 he had an exhibition at Seychelles and in 1987 an exhibition in Rome, Italy.

Callejón de Hamel

Detail from Callejón de Hamel. 23°8′19.792″N 82°22′30.328″W / 23.13883111°N 82.37509111°W / 23.13883111; -82.37509111

April 21, 1990 he started with murals and sculptures in the street Callejón de Hamel, near University of Havana. For sculptures he used scrap objects like bathtubs, hand pumps, pin wheels etc., and for the murals he used different kind of available paint, including car enamel.

Even though the first four years became difficult, he was inspired by local inhabitants and visitors to continue his work, and little by little, the street was transformed from a slum area to an enthusiastic Afro-Cuban centre.

Today there are workshops for young Cuban children to learn painting. Every Sunday there are rumba performances, and every Friday Cuban music in the street.

This is still Salvador's artistic headquarter.

Later exhibitions

From 1990 he is represented at various exhibitions at Cuba. From 1992 he had several exhibitions abroad:

Norway

Denmark

Mexico

Puerto Rico

USA

Spain

Murals

Besides several murals at Cuba, he has done murals abroad:

Venezuela

Norway

Mexico

Denmark

United States

St. Martin

Puerto Rico

Italy

Sculptures

Besides several sculptures at Cuba:

Denmark

Movies

Several video-interviews is produced by Cuban TV and by others. 2002 the 79 minutes documentary "A Cuban Legend: The Story of Salvador González" was produced by Bette Wanderman.

Presentations

Videos

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