Reinaldo Ortega

REINALDO ORTEGA SARDIÑAS (Cuba, 1977)
"I am in that I am in Valencia". Series "Theaters of Democracy" (2024-2025).
Collage, mixed media, acrylic on canvas.
Signed.
Certificate of authenticity attached.
Mounted on its wooden stretcher frame.
Measurements: 81 x 100 cm.

As a transgressor of contemporary pop-surrealism, I develop a work that subverts the codes of art and popular culture. Through vibrant graphics and the imaginary of Pop Art, I appropriate iconic references to disarm them, decontextualize them and return them to the present as an uncomfortable reflection of our reality. I ignore with deliberate indifference any ideological or cultural legacy of the past, because I do not seek to pay homage, but to question, provoke and rewrite their meanings.

I resort to collage as a starting point, not only as a visual technique, but as a declaration of rupture. It is in that initial pause where an aesthetic rich in materials, technical solutions and unexpected combinations is born, which, without the need to respond to an established order, give shape to a spontaneous, irreverent and deeply contemporary visual language. My work breaks into symbols, dismantles the sacred, and turns the recognizable into an object of reflection, irony or contradiction. I do not seek answers; I generate frictions. Because in the clash between the iconic and the absurd, between the revered and the banal, emerges the distorted mirror of our time.

Reinaldo Ortega Sardiñas is a visual artist graduated from ISA in 2004 and from ENA in 1996. He lives in Alicante, Spain. His solo exhibitions include: Destellos intransferibles (Espacio ES/UM, University of Murcia, 2019), Common Dreams Black & White (Sala Juana Francés, University of Alicante, 2018), Con derecho al cielo (Sala del Club Información, Alicante, 2017; Hotel Parque Central, Havana, 2016; Miramar Trade Center, Havana, 2015), Penelope City (Miramar Trade Center, Havana, 2016), Habana libre (Hotel Habana Libre, 2015), Vistas del panorama (Hotel H10 Panorama, 2015), El destello de lo no permeable (XI Bienal de La Habana, 2011), Con todos los hierros para el blanco y para el negro (Galería Luz y Oficios, 2010) and El verdadero hierro para una guerra (exhibition and scenographic projects in Alicante and Havana, 2005-2006). In group exhibitions he has participated in ¿Hacer las Américas? (Sala Vista Alegre, Torrevieja, 2018), the Salón de Autorretrato (Fototeca de Cuba, 2013), the Salón de Billetes (Fototeca de Cuba, 2012), Siniestros (Galería Habana, 2011), Common in our Thoughts (Fábrica de Arte Cubano, 2011), El extremo de la bala (Pabellón Cuba, 2010), the National Digital Art Salon (Pablo de la Torriente Brau Center, 2010), the 10th Havana Biennial (2009) and the Fábrica de Arte Festival (2009), as well as in the 6th City and Sculpture Salon Transeúnte (CODEMA Gallery, 2006).