Salvador González Escalona

He is a Cuban painter, sculptor, and muralist whose artistic name is Salvador. His work is recognized for its "Afro-Cuban" style. Visual artist and manager of the Sociocultural Community Project Callejón de Hamel, located in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood of Havana, Centro Habana.

Salvador "dedicated part of his life to the development of community culture and the promotion of traditional popular culture," was self-taught and held his first exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Havana in 1968, which was titled Cuban Popular Art.

In 1990, he began painting murals and sculptures in Callejón de Hamel, in Cayo Hueso, where he used scrap metal and recycled materials such as bathtubs, hand grenades, and pin wheels for the sculptures. The artist used a wide variety of paints for the murals, including automobile enamels.

Despite the difficult early years, González continued his work inspired by the neighbors and visitors who came to the place. In the end, the artist managed to transform the street into a vibrant center for Afro-Cuban culture.

His work is a mixture of surrealism, cubism, and abstract art. His references should be placed in Africa, although his works also contain references to great icons of Mexican muralist art from the twentieth century such as Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, or Orozco.

His name has acquired certain relevance among the new values of Cuban art precisely because of his work as a muralist, a good example of which can be seen in all its splendor in El Callejón de Hamel, located in the Cayo Hueso neighborhood, municipality of Centro Habana, Havana. This community has experienced a transformation thanks to the intervention of a community of artists who have adopted it as a place of residence and work.

In the conceptual section, he carries out a constant vindication of the ethnic, alluding to the historical heritage, making an exercise of interweaving of cultures, with the different stages of Afro-American history represented in his work.

Although he has no formal training, in 1968 he held his first art exhibition "Cuban Popular Art" at the "Museum of Decorative Arts" in Havana. In the 1980s, he exhibited a series in Cuba. In 1986 he had an exhibition in the Seychelles and in 1987 he held another exhibition in Rome.

In April 1990 he began with mural paintings and sculptures on the street. Salvador came to Callejón de Hamel to paint a mural on a friend's house and ended up painting everything within his reach. Some of the neighbors, alarmed by this metamorphosis that was taking place on their street, joined him.

The reaction was surprising. For the sculptures, he used scrapped objects such as bathtubs, hand grenades, pin wheels, etc., and for the murals he used various kinds of paints, even car enamel.

Although the first four years were difficult, neighbors and guests encouraged him to continue with his work, and little by little, the street transformed from a poor neighborhood area to a vibrant Afro and Cuban center. Cuban children and youth learn to paint in the workshops. On Sundays, rumba dances and Cuban music are organized on the street every Friday.

Exhibitions
Since 1990 his works have been included in various exhibitions in Cuba and from 1992 onwards he has had several exhibitions abroad:

Norway:
1992 - Stavanger + Bergen (University of Bergen) + Florø.

Denmark:
1992 - Aarhus + Copenhagen.
1994 - Randers.
1996 - Vejle.

Mexico:
1994 -

Puerto Rico:
1997 - San Juan.

United States:
1998 - New York (The Metropolitan Pavilion Gallery) + University of California, Los Angeles.
1999 - New York (Manhattan)
2000 - New York (The Metropolitan Pavilion Gallery) + Tiberino + Philadelphia.

Spain:
2005 - Madrid.

Mural Paintings
In addition to several mural paintings in Cuba, he has created murals abroad:

Venezuela:
1991 - "The Son of the Sun", 350m² - Hotel Caracas Hilton.

Norway:
1992 - Florø.

Mexico:
1993 - "Ancestors" - Multicultural Center, Xochimilco. Invited by Dr. Félix Zurita Ochoa.
1994 - "Sun of America" - Anthropological Museum of Querétaro, Otomi Indigenous Institute, Autonomous University.

Denmark:
1995 - "Mother Water", "Solidaritetshuset", Copenhagen.
1996 - "Daedalus of the Sea" - Vejle.

United States:
1995 - "The Rock of Love" - El Johnson State College, Vermont + a mural in Arizona.
1996 - "The Dead for the Saint" + "Iku Lobi Osha" - California + "The Creation of Obbatala before the God of the Road" - New Jersey (Roosevelt elementary school) + "The God of the Road" - New York (Washington Square Preschool).
1998 - "The Flamboyant" - New York (El Museo del Barrio).
2000 - "Butterflies of the Caribbean" - Philadelphia.
2001 - "A Flower for Africa" - Philadelphia.

San Martín:
1996 - Hospitality center, Albuquerque.

Puerto Rico:
1998 - "Shore Facing the Sea" + "Rumba" + "Rumba in the Rumba" + "From a Single Bird the Two Wings"

Italy:
2007 - Turin.

Sculptures
In addition to several sculptures in Cuba, also in:

Denmark
1994 - "The Guinea Fowl and the Key" - Randers.
1996 - "Yemaya Olokun" - Vejle.

Videos
Several video interviews have been produced by Cuban TV and others: in 2002 a 79-minute documentary titled «A Cuban Legend: The Story of Salvador González» was produced by Bette Wanderman.

Presentations

The New York Times - Presentation of the film «A Cuban Legend».