Saturday 12 July 2014

Alberto Matinez: A Cuban Painter in Brighton


I was in Brighton for a bit the other day when I stumbled across the fantastical paintings of Cuban painted Alberto Matinez. His work is incredible- trippy, colourful, surreal and out of this world. Click here to see more of Alberto's work

'My name is Alberto Martinez Hernandez. One first name, two surnames. I was born in Cuba in 1977 in a very small village surrounded by sugar cane plantations and all sort of agriculture hardware. Dad was a tractor driver, mum a housewife. I'm the youngest from 4 siblings. One girl, three boys.

When I was a kid I wanted to be a tractor driver as any self respected boy in the village would. Destiny had other plans I guess. My first memories of any art related activity are drawing the passing steam engines with trucks full of sugar cane 50 metres from our house. By a mixture of luck, good preparation and help from relatives and friends I got a place to study sculpture at the Fine Arts Academy "Oscar Fernandez Morera" on the beautiful city of Trinidad. I graduated in 1997.'