Juan Manuel Rivero Prieto

JUAN MANUEL RIVERO PRIETO (Antilla, Cuba, 1976).
"The abduction of the maiden", 2016.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 97 x 130 cm.
Work in which the artist brings a new image of the abduction of Europa. Placing in the center of the composition a young woman who washes herself in a small basin and of which we cannot appreciate her face, due to her posture. Behind her behind the column, there is a being, whose body of man and bull's head, alludes directly to the transformation of Zeus as a bull to abduct Europa. This theory is complemented by the representation of the background, which in the painting looks like a fresco of the room itself. This represents the aforementioned mythological theme in a manner faithful to the representations of Titian and Rubens.
Cuban painter Juan Rivero began his training at the Professional School of Plastic Arts "El Alba" of Holguin, where he graduated in the specialty of painting (1991-95). He then entered the Higher Institute of Art in Havana, again in painting, graduating in 2001. Between 2001 and 2005 he worked as a professor at the San Alejandro Painting Academy and as a curator at the "Luz y Oficios" Design and Visual Arts Center, both in the Cuban capital. In parallel, between 2001 and 2008, he was curator of the five editions of the Circo Project (International Performance and Audiovisual Event), also held in the city of Havana. Likewise, in 2003 he received a grant from the Foundation Hivos and Triangle Trust ("Batiscafo Project") and the Ludwig Foundation ("Antonia Eiriz"), in Havana. Finally settled in Castellón de la Plana, Spain, Rivero is currently working in the painting and engraving workshops of Juan García Ripollés. In parallel to this permanent training activity, the Cuban artist has been making his work known in Cuba, Colombia, Spain and Brazil since the late 1990s. He made his solo debut in 1998 with the exhibition entitled "El objeto del Eterno" (The Object of the Eternal), held at the Casa de la Cultura de Plaza, in Havana. Juan Rivero has been awarded the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts at the 7th Havana Biennial (2000), the Curatorial Award for the exhibition "Con un pensar abstraído" (DUPP Gallery, Havana, 2001) and the Curatorial Project Award for "Proyecto Circo Travelling", granted by the Spanish Embassy in Cuba and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (2006).