Ernesto Alba is a Cuban-Canadian artist. He was born in Havana, Cuba. At the present time he lives and works in Ottawa, Canada.

The main theme in Alba’s work is Alba himself, but also you: as long as you are Human, and living on this planet. Alba’s paintings are not about the “joy” of being human, but the opposite. Each painting that Alba does is a reminder that we, Humans, are destroying this planet, and together with this we are destroying ourselves. Each painting speaks about the relationship between the past and current decline of human society.

Alba was raised in Havana. From the beginning of his life he has been experiencing the transformation of the city, and his inhabitants, in a backward direction. So, for him, Havana is a symbol of the disaster that is happening on the whole planet. However, besides all the destruction there is beauty, romanticism, and poetry in Havana. All this natural and visceral beauty has been impregnated deep into the subconscious of Alba’s brain.

Alba’s paintings are linked to one another. They are abstracts and figurative at the same time. They all speak of the female body and its curves. The Caribbean Sea and its turquoise, aqua or cyan colours. The Catholic religion and its icons, specifically the Cuban icons. One example is La Virgen de La Caridad del Cobre, which is related to the Virgen Maria. Churches and cathedrals were extremely important in the process of learning from a visual point of view, but also, they were important places to observe and study the human condition. For this reason, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo are three classic styles that have strongly influenced Alba’s art and his colour palette.

And now comes the chaos. Construction and destruction is an important part in the process of painting for Alba. He starts by constructing, sometimes it looks like the painting is almost finished, but then, he uses solvent, spatulas, alcohol, rags, sandpapers, and any other material or tool to dramatically change whatever was already painted. The idea is to give the painting the feeling of mayhem, of disaster, but also of time, and rust and rot are tightly connected to time.

If you have been in Havana, and you kept your eyes open, you could see the connection between the paintings of Alba and the city: dilapidated buildings all around the city, broken azulejos (tiles) adorning the walls, indecipherable wall patterns, water stains, mold and holes on walls, rust is everywhere because of old and damage water pipes, and the lack of light in interiors rooms but also on the streets at night. At the end, all this destruction brings a kind of harmony, some kind of poetry, and this deterioration is beauty in itself. And the most important thing: you can see this decay, this degradation everywhere on this planet; therefore, it is Universal.

And universal is the way to describe Alba’s paintings. We cannot wait to see what is next.