The artist recovers, stores, deciphers, conserves, and restores the vestiges of an individual memory blending with the universal collective memory of prison. His work functions as a poetic evocation of the pain of imprisonment and social exclusion.
This play is a reflection on the (im)possibility of accepting diversity and the other. The fragmented body of the neoplasm—the fruit of unstable conditions—overcomes barriers, loves and denies itself and others, wanders around, forgetting its profession. It frequently and with pleasure divides, goes through dangerous palpation, questions the possibility of contact with the experience of the other. Poorly brought up but very successful, it invites us to a trans-species transition.
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Perhaps the day will come when Ángel Delgado manages to expel all his Memorias acumuladas (Accumulated Memories), traumatic recollections of his months in prison. His work is an example of the saying, "Nothing is so bad that something good doesn't come from it." The undeniable fact of his incarceration and all the prison memorabilia have tattooed his skin and marked his thinking while allowing him to develop an iconography based on his personal experience.
Starting from a personal event, Ángel burrows into his memories, fictionalizing and imagining actions that took place in his prison surroundings. Like an archeologist he recovers, stores, deciphers, conserves, and restores the vestiges of an individual memory that blends with the universal collective memory of prison. His work functions as a poetic evocation of the pain of imprisonment and social exclusion.
As he reorganizes, evokes, and incorporates new symbols, his method grows richer. What began in jail broadens and acquires new meanings that fill the pages of a personal alphabetic glossary. Trying to exorcise his personal pain, Delgado gives us his "prison trophies," at the same time that he demonstrates their curative powers. - Magda Ileana González-Mora, Curator
Exhibition
Ángel Delgado was born in Havana, Cuba, and lives in Long Beach, California. He earned his degree at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana and went on to earn a more advanced degree in Fine Arts at the Higher Institute of the Arts in Havana in 1986.
Delgado’s work revolves around the freedom of the individual or lack thereof. His artwork is based on the limitations, restrictions, prohibitions, controls, and lack of freedoms imposed on human beings within society. He takes everyday life situations and creates them into elaborate paintings, photographs, drawings, videos, installations, and performance art.
His art has been extensively exhibited nationally and internationally, including Building Bridges Art Exchange, Santa Monica; Aluna Art Foundation, Miami; Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, Las Vegas; Queens Museum, New York; Artane Gallery, Istanbul; Galería Fúcares, Madrid; Haus der Kunst München, Germany; Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, throughout Cuba and more.
Delgado’s art is owned by private collectors, museums, and public collections including, Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam; Faber Collection, New York; International Sculpture Center, New Jersey; Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver; Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA; and Perez Art Museum, Miami, among others.
