Artist’s Statement
 

The nexus between music and painting and ways of pictorially representing sound and silence, have been the main subjects of my work as an artist since 1980. This exploration has many facets from attempts at a pictorial representation of sound, to the creation of environments (maybe places or landscapes) that result from the sensations, feelings, states of mind and/or visions generated by music. My work has gone through different stages from attempts to illustration of specific musical work to explorations of aspects of the musical structure itself. This is, of course, purely subjective

The final phase of production in my work is distinguished by a return to painting, almost forgotten in my eagerness in use it as a medium instead of a purpose, and the utilization of all I’ve learned through the years about shaping a pictorial – not musical – art work, which held all the spiritual power of music, as an autonomous entity, without moving it away from it’s musical sources by means of referent codes, which, I hope, made possible the identification of the theme by the viewer.

The resolution of this process continues to evolve as I grow as an artist and a person. It remains my principal challenge

                           Miguel Cerejido
 
 

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  Curriculum Vitae

Miguel Cerejido is a Canadian artist, born in Havana, Cuba on February the 26^th of 1960.

Graduated of drawing and painting from the academy of Arts "San Alejandro" in 1980. He finished a Master Degree in Fine Arts at the Instituto Superior de Arte (I.S.A.) in 1985; he worked as a professor at the Institute of Industrial Design, among other art schools in Cuba. He also worked as a specialist at the Centro de "Diseño Ambiental" (Interior Design) in Havana.

He was an active member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) since 1995, and of Art Kollectif Media Foundation Inc. in Ottawa, Canada.

Presently he is a member of Arts Ottawa East organization, The Council for the Arts in Ottawa and The Ottawa Art Gallery.

His explorations in painting have always been dealing with the possible nexuses between music and painting as well as, in a very particular way, "Images" that this other artistic discipline produces in his subjectivity.

This theme has been always present in his artistic endeavors from 1983 -while still a student at ISA-, encompassing all his carrier and evolving in many different forms, according to levels of perception in the artist's sensibility and to what is he focusing in his approach to the musical phenomenon.

Exhibitions, Fairs and other events

• 1979- Itinerant Exhibition in Europe.
• 1984- 1^st Biennial of Havana. "L" Gallery, Havana.
• 1985- School of Arts and Literature. University of Havana.
• 1987- Professor’s Salon. Superior Institute of Industrial Design, Havana.
• 1989- "INTERART" Fair. Poland.
• 1990- "La Acacia" Gallery inauguration. Havana.
• 1991- "70 years of Cuban Painting" "Siqueiros" Polyforum.
• 1992- Auction at the centre Cuban studies. New York.
• 1993- Fair of Seville. Spain
• 1997- Exhibition of Contemporary Cuban Art. Madrid, Spain.
• 1998- "Gallery Terra". Wuppertal. Germany.
• 1998- XXV Anniversary of the Latin-American Commission of Civil Aviation. Mexico.
• 1999- "Con un poco de Amor". Visual Arts and Design Provincial Center. Havana.
• 2000- Design and decoration works for the "Catholic Immigration Centre". Ottawa. Canada.
• 2001- Design and decoration works with the stage designer Simon Clark, for the "Tulip Festival" At David Caution & Mark Masters' studio). Ottawa. Canada.
• 2003- Multimedia Fundraiser Art Auction in support of Ottawa Outaouais Social Forum celebrated at Babylon Night Club, Ottawa.
• 2003- Becomes a Board Member of Art Kollectif Media Foundation Inc. and participates in the preparation of Studio One Grand Finale's Celebration working on promotional graphics and organizing the silent art auction, among other activities.
• 2005- First Annual Mayor's Art Festival. Ottawa City Hall. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 2005- Christmas Sale at the Glebe Community Centre. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 2006- "Plain Air Canada" group exhibition at Art Rental and Sales at The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG).
• 2006- "Can You Take the Heat?" group exhibition at Art Rental and Sales at The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG).
• 2006- Nomad Gallery's "Earth Tribe" group exhibition at The Electric Gallery.
• 2006- "NOVUS" group exhibition at Art Rental and Sales at The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG).
• 2006- "PREVIEW". Group show of diverse artists, from Ottawa, Toronto, Nanaimo and Surrey at the Parkdale Gallery's Grand Opening exhibition (December 7th 6 to 9pm). November 15th, 2006 to January 15th, 2007.
• 2007- "New Canadians". Parkdale Gallery. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 2007- "SUMMER SALON". Art Rental and Sales. The Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG). Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
• 2009- "Art of Giving" / Group Exhibit . Patrick John Mills Contemporary Fine Art Gallery. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Personal Exhibits

• 1984- Center for the research and development of Cuban Music. Havana. Cuba.
• 1985- "From Music to Canvas". Cuban Found of Cultural Wealth Gallery. (FIB) Havana. Cuba.
• 1986- "Arte Universal" Gallery. Trinidad, Cuba.
•             Wifredo Lam Gallery. Havana. Cuba
•             Superior Institute of Industrial Design's Gallery. Havana. Cuba.
• 1991- "Do’s". "La Acacia", and "La Habana" Galleries. Havana. Cuba
• 1995- "Time, Music, Painting; Frederic Chopin" Embassy of Poland. Havana. Cuba.
• 1999- III International Fair  Cubadisco 99 . Pabexpo. Havana. Cuba
•           " Ad Lib". National Hotel Of Cuba. Gallery. Havana. Cuba.
• 2000- "Ad Lib". Visual Arts Centre, Orléans, Ontario, Canada.
•           " Cerejido's Selected Works". "Au café 4 Jeudis". Hull. Quebec. Canada.
• 2004- Complete design and creation of The Black Sheep Stage set for the Cisco Systems Ottawa Bluesfest 2004. Ottawa. Canada.
• 2005- "Paths: Music and Magic". Cumberland Gallery. Orléans, Ontario, Canada.
• 2005- "Selected paintings by Miguel Cerejido". The Dovercourt Gallery. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Awards

• 1986- 1^st Place in painting. "V Salon UNEAC". Sancti Spiritus, Cuba.

• Painting Award at the Provincial Encounter of Landscape. Sancti Spiritus, Cuba.

• 1998- 2^nd Place at the Painting Contest of the Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba.
• 2002- January 2003 Digital Color Artist Of The Month. Digital Consciousness Art Database.
• 2004- July 2004 The Ottawa Citizen “Best Ambiance” award to The Black Sheep stage design at Cisco Systems Ottawa Bluesfest 2004.

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Reviews
 

"...son practicamente gráficos acústicos, donde quedan registradas tanto la pulsacion del ejecutante sobre la cuerda del instrumento como el movimiento del aire al propagar el sonido...aparecen mascaras helenicas produciendo voz, con lo que se aborda la dimension tiempo: las mascaras-marmol estan asociadas a la escultura y al teatro de la Grecia Clasica,(...)estan repletos de lineas angulosas que ascienden en forma de organo catedralicio(...)y que describen la cinetica del aire en las alturas tubulares.

Tambien podemos apreciar un marcado interes por por los procedimientos extructurales de la musica: el fenomeno de acumulacion creciente de sonidos para lleguar a un final crepitante, lo hallamos aqui en una solucion geometrica, sugestiva por su construccion(...)lo que nos revela un estrecho vinculo con el ART DECO, y mas especificamente con su arquitectura(...)razon por la que se acentua su caracter hieratico y severo; mas este sentido se rompe parcialmente, pues la caligrafia del dibujo varia sensiblemente en los espacios contiguos, creando asi un acertado equilibrio.

...estos trabajos ponen en evidencia una multitud de trayectorias posibles, salidas del entroncamiento de ambas disciplinas. La cercania de sus codigos genera asociaciones inesperadas y descubre relaciones completamente inauditas."

                           Alfredo Gomez, composer
 

"...Miguel Cerejido, opta por atrapar compases, ritmos y planos del espacio musical, valiendose de armoniosas imagenes que no ocultan las improntas-integradas de lo abstracto geometrico y el informalismo, la pintura del signo y busquedas sinesteticas evidentes(...)el manejo de dimensiones que interiorizan el sentido espacial(...)contrastes de dibujo definido y texturaciones sobre planos cromaticos, en los que se proyectan virtuosismo y orden meticuloso(...)el impulso del oficio controlado por figuras lineales, que interpretan elementos formativos de la sonoridad(...)son tesituras de lo bello y lo placentero, que tambien hoy son, y seran, legitimas opciones de diversidad que enriquecen la production artistica."

                           Manuel Lopez Oliva, artist
 
 

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Opening Speech

"Ad Lib". Hotel Nacional de Cuba. June 21^st 1999.
 

When I first met Miguel, I never imagined some day I would make an opening speech for an exhibit of his artwork. At the time I didn't know that much about visual arts and I only had a scant notion about the intensity of the whole process in the creation of a pictorial work.

Maybe just because of a natural disposition in me toward the arts and surely due to the strength Cerejido faces each painting's birth, I started appraising the world of canvases, brushes, airbrushes..., and I began to understand how much of sleeplessness, nonconformity and satisfactions are behind the work of each artist; and also got to understand the beauty of the pieces we now have before us.

I think today is the time to thank him for all I learned about art and graphic design, which has been so useful in my own work and my professional life.

And I said "pieces" referring to his paintings with the pronounced intention of considering them as visual and musical artworks at the same time in the universe of this artist who refuses to separate this two expressions of art.

For the wide scope the meaning of his works has on the spectator, Cerejido is hard to set in an specific branch or unique classification.

For many people he could be an abstractionist that re-creates concepts and sensations with skills and mastership. For others the expressionist element is quite evident in works loaded with theatrical and dramatic strength.

Landscapes? Considering the fact that each and every piece is a kind of unreal or imaginary place, but perfectly possible in some regions we maybe don't know about, why not?

The best definition perhaps would be to call him "postmodern", since he appropriates element from POP ART, ART DECO, illustration and graphics in general to create melodic lines with the sounds of Rock and Blues, and harmonies from the best Bach and Stravinsky's concerts.

In love with music, and a musician himself, Cerejido prefers auto define as a "nostalgic avant-garde" who catches the emotion of music in his canvases to make it tangible and real for us.

I'm not allowed the right to compare myself or even get close to those really qualified to outline the work of this musician-artist or artist-musician called Miguel Cerejido. But my sensibility gives me the perfect right to feel myself touched in front of the beauty of his work and also feel I am before a great artist.

Many of you surely agree with me.

Thank you

Luisa Leonor Veitía Alvarez

1958 - 2000

 
 

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Artwork

(Click on any thumbnail to enlarge the image)