“My works are blood in my veins. In those lived experiences lies the essence of what I am now. This essence has to do with a cosmogony that responds to an ancestral thought, one that possesses a very particular way of conceiving life and the world, shared by those of us who practice, love and defend this religion. I do not consider myself an artist. I consider myself a maker of objects. What is a santero? A maker of objects. What am I? A santero, a maker of images, images that are not made to be worshiped, but so that they at least move the eyes that contemplate them, in the same way the sound of the drum moves. I aspire for my work to find a public capable of deserving it.” — Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal
Olazabal was born in 1955 in Havana where he still lives and works. He studied at the San Alejandro Art Academy 1972-75 and later traveled to Canada and Spain for art residencies. He’s exhibited widely in Cuba, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Haiti and the Netherlands.
Deeply involved in African religions, Olazabal is a priest of Ifá, the Yoruban religion underlying Santeria. Nurtured by traditions of African origin, his art work provides a powerful intellectual incentive to approach the complexities and beauty of Yoruba culture. Olazabal has taken the language of traditional western culture to transmit his messages and at the same time, his work is symbolic and allegorical, not in the least “folkloric.” His superb installations and sculptural works have brought him worldwide attention in recent years. The works in this exhibit are drawings, works on paper from the early 1990s and for Olazabal drawing has always held enormous importance: “For me, drawing is a kind of writing, with an iconography that acts and expresses the qualities of its own poetic circumstances,” he said on opening a major exhibit in 2014 in Havana.