36 Choco (Eduardo Roca), Untitled, 1980. Lithograph, 24/45

CHOCO [Eduardo Roca Salazar] b. 1949, Santiago de Cuba, is known for his exquisite printmaking, especially collagraphy, as well as painting and sculpture. He graduated from the National School of Art Instructors, and then from Havana’s National Art School (ENA) in 1970. He has worked as a professor in Havana and given courses on engraving in Spain and the U.S. He’s received many awards, and most recently was awarded Cuba’s most prestigious art award, the National Prize for Visual Arts, for which he was  given a solo exhibit at the Havana Museum of Fine Arts in December 2018. Among the national and foreign awards received by him are the Engraving Award at the National Young Visual Arts Salon (1977), the First Prize for Small Format Engraving in Galicia, Spain (1984), the First Prize in Drawing at the UNEAC National Visual Arts Exhibition (1986), and the Grand Prix at the 4th International Engraving Triennial Exhibition in Kochi, Japan (1999). He was one of the first two artists invited to the U.S. by the Center for Cuban Studies in 1981.