Olazábal (Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal) #3787 (SL) Maferefun Oggun," 1991. Mixed media water color on paper. 27 x 19.5 inches,

OLAZABAL [Santiago Rodriguez 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.