Carlos Guzman (Havana, 1970), has traveled down the long road of plastic arts. His curiosity has taken him to become a drawer, painter and sculptor —who has also been an arts instructor, a professor, gallery director and illustrator for a number of publications— longs for devoting his talents in the traditional way of making murals. That’s quite a challenge.

A graduate of the class of 1989 from the San Alejandro Academy of Plastic Arts, Carlos Guzman (Havana 1970) has taken part in over 60 collective and individual exhibits, and his artworks are scattered in collections in Cuba and in a dozen countries like Spain, Italy, UK, France, the U.S., Indonesia, South Africa, Brazil and Panama. He admits his art has “more of a European touch than a Cuban accent. However, light…” and now he turns to symbols and universal religious cults to spell this out as he speaks of Mesoamerican cultures, the Japanese art and the Zen Buddhism, “I leave mystery to chance; I never try to get into it myself,” he explains.

And his sculptures from The Lookout series? And what about those junks and toys? The little wheels? And those long metal rods in Abracadabra? “Yes, it’s Acosta Leon… I’ve never said that… but yes, it a homage.” And the drawings and the colors of the Sailing Into Your Nights series? “They come to me from the oriental tradition, from Russia… my father’s relationships.” Carlos is now bringing his art to tourist resorts in the form of interior murals. “It’s enriching and interactive.” Nothing is imposed to him, yet he basks in a sea of influences: decor, furniture, architecture. “You are part of it without being subdued.”: another challenge.

He specially recalls the mural he painted for the tourist resorts of Cayo Largo del Sur in Cuba, under the name of The Lookout. He made use of sanguine, graphite and tint over a large lobby wall of one of the hotels in this travel destination. Another recent artwork is the mural he made over a plank of acrylic on a wall for the Iberostar-Trinidad hotel entitled An Angel over a Sleeping City.

And he’s now working slowly in another mural, this time up for the Belomento 20 Gallery, in Portugal. It’s a piece made of graphite, tint and nib over light cardboard propped up by light boxes. The title? Lancelot in Search of a Missing Dream. Anything new in store now? “I’m now working on an exposition of 9 cloths using mixed techniques to park the 400th anniversary of the finding of the image of Our Lady of Charity for the Church of the Holy Trinity in Santiago de Cuba.”