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Since the dawn of mankind, existential conflicts have been sources of inspiration for artists and poets. That explains why so many questions about the basic essence of human beings keep popping up time and again, as well as their feelings of uprooted and lonely behavior, reasons to live for, the role of responsibility and willingness, among other points of anguish and reflection. These conflicts have traditionally made man the driving force behind the great works of artistic creation, regardless of techniques, movements, schools, shapes, forms of expression and different stages the history of the arts has gone through.

For Annia Alonso Araña, a young artist born in the beautiful coastal city of Cienfuegos, in central Cuba, these motifs don't take a back seat to any other topic. A graduate of painting and sculpture from the National Arts School and professor of Fine Arts at the University of Villa Clara, Annia finally found out –despite alternating painting and teaching- that the former was her true vocation. “From that moment on, I started painting restlessly,” she says. As most painters of all time, young Annia's works have gone through several stages, each and every one of them defining a period of maturity and mastery that have enriched her paintings in a piecemeal fashion.

In what can be considered a first stage, marked by searches and experiments, reflections and bold moves, Annia took the basics up a notch and began outlining exactly what she was looking for. She counted on the help of naïf painter Julian Espinosa “Wayacon” for a first series entitled “With Four Hands.” But both during her early going with “Small Archive for Memories” and her latest works in “Naked Encounter” –an exhibit pieced together with Agustin Bejarano, a former classmate of hers- the fine artist took on an ontological character. In other words, the huge conflicts that torment human beings soon became the great stars of her paintings. Men and women on canvass were expressing preoccupations and such universal feelings as anguish and solitude.

At the pinnacle of technique mastery and personal styles, drawings is a fundamental expressive element for Annia. Enlarged figures and colors that melt into one solid hue out of her easel push her works to a higher degree of refinement and beauty. As David Mateo, a recognized art critic once put it, “the most significant element about Annia's paintings is that conception and realization of the new creation reach a level of fusion with elements that she had already worked with through the combination of drawings and paintings.”

A self-confident Annia notes “time has come for a much bigger challenge: to have my works recognized and appraised in the Cuban capital. I've prepared myself thoroughly for this moment and I've been lucky enough to count on the help of a good friend of mine, so Bejarano will be this exhibition's curator.” She refers to a personal exposition that's been sprucing up the lobby area of the Maritim Panorama Hotel in Havana during February and March. The collection contains fifteen light cardboard pieces in which she used mixed technique. The topic is the same that has urged her to wield the brush: human beings and nature. This time around, though, most paintings depict solitary, isolated and loveless women whose moods are the cause of profound wariness and esthetic expression, the same motifs we normally see driving painters in other cities from around the world. This is some sort of existential emptiness that human beings sometimes try to fill up by falling back on pets. In this particular case, dogs are splayed on canvasses as genuine symbols of friendliness, love and consolation, no matter the social status or layer the owner belongs to.

This first exhibition in Havana, simply entitled “Girls & Dogs,” is a follow-up of her previous collection, “Naked Encounters” (Toronto, July 2004), that also counted on the contribution of Agustin Bejarano. Make no mistakes about it; this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come closer to the fine art of a talented young painter named Annia Alonso Araña.

Studio & Workshop 452 B Street on the corner of 21 Avenue, apartment 1, Vedado, Havana, Cuba. E-mail: monsterkuban@yahoo.com Phone: (537)833 7892