Antuan

 
Antuán’s first solo exhibit at sixteen, Objects Revolt, (1988) establishes his public perception as a radical environmentalist.  He is remarkably deft at most art techniques—result of strict training in the arts  since he was seven years old and  his schooling at EVA Olga Alonso (1985)-- graduate of Elemental Level in Art, Villa Clara, Cuba. By means of an unprecedented special permission from Cuba’s Ministry of Education—and at their request-- he enrolls, at seventeen, as both college student and faculty member at the  Instituto Superior Pedagógico Felix Varela. 
 
There he creates and helms a four-year interdisciplinary conservation commission, ECO Project (1992). His thesis, Art and Habitat (1996), --Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, Universidad Felix Varela Villa Clara, Cuba-- addresses scientific research on three endangered species, conceptual sculpture on the human form and behavior, and  arte povera recycled organic waste installations. Antuán underscores the role of the artist as a social worker. Unremitting , Antuán develops and produces numerous projects, ie. the architectural design of a giant manatee building structure doubling as a social center, Memories of the 20th Century(1997), a series of sculptures made with concentration camps’ forks and spoons in the South of France. In 1997, he studies casting in bronze under the direction of the sculptor Josep Castell in Perpignan, France.
 
In 1998, Antuán is commissioned to design  and sculpt Cuba’s gift for Pope John Paul II. His minimalist rendering of La Virgen de la Caridad is in the Vatican’s permanent collection. . Later in the year, he is granted a scholarship by Fundación Bancaja in Valencia, Spain in 1998.
The artist leaves Cuba and migrates to the USA in 1999; his protest through his art, conflictive. In 2000, he has his first solo exhibit in the United States: Universal Conscience. In 2001, he is granted another scholarship to master his studies in iron and resin  which he completes at L’Atelier D’art Ros Mari in Valencia, Spain.