Jan Valdés Téllez

JAN VALDÉS TÉLLEZ (Havana, Cuba, 1979).
“The Deconstruction of Simone,” 2024.
Oil on linen.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner. Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse.
Measurements: 61 x 111 cm.
This work belongs to the series *Relatos de extrarradio* (Suburban Tales), in which Jan Valdés Téllez draws on recognizable figures from the popular imagination to deconstruct their conventional representation and construct new pictorial narratives. In “The Deconstruction of Simone,” the female figure appears nude in an everyday setting, making the body the primary element of reflection: simultaneously the subject of contemplation and the object of the gaze. One of the work’s fundamental devices is the accumulation of references to art history. Different ways of representing the female body—alluding to Picasso, Botticelli, or Botero—coexist within a single composition. Valdés Téllez does not reproduce these models literally but rather fragments them, a technique characteristic of his painting. The work thus invites the viewer to reconstruct their own narrative. Each figure and each detail alludes to a different story, making the painting a space where artistic tradition, popular culture, and contemporary experience meet and transform one another.
Jan Valdés Téllez is a Cuban-Spanish painter trained at the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts and the Higher Institute of Art in Havana. He has held solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba and the 23rd and 12th Gallery in Havana, in addition to participating in international exhibitions in Spain, Canada, and the United States. His awards include the Arturo Montoto Painting Prize (2004) and the John Dalton “Gently Does It” Art Prize (2022). He has lived in Madrid since 2021.