Yuni R. P - El gondolero enmascarado

YUNI R. P.'s painting is built from a direct, physical relationship with matter. Working mainly with oil on canvas and dispensing with the brush in favor of the spatula, the artist develops a pictorial surface in which color is not limited to describing the image: it gains volume, direction, and movement.

The spatula allows him to deposit, drag, and layer the oil through broad and decisive gestures. From this procedure emerge surfaces of considerable material-chromatic richness, where colors appear partially on the canvas without completely losing their individuality. This feature constitutes one of the most recognizable elements of his language: intense blues, turquoises, solar yellows, oranges, reds, and whites face off and mingle in a highly luminous palette.

Although his production includes landscapes, gardens, figures, and urban scenes, in recent years the sea has become one of the great axes of his painting. Sails, ports, coasts, reflections, and horizons repeatedly appear, transformed by a gaze that privileges sensory experience over meticulous description. His residence in Havana and daily proximity to the coastal landscape thus find a natural reflection in his imaginative world.

Formally, his work dialogues with certain principles of impressionism and post-impressionism: capturing changing light, chromatic fragmentation, and the will to transmit an impression rather than a photographic reproduction of the subject. In some of his seascapes, one can even perceive an affinity with Joaquín Sorolla’s luminous tradition, particularly in the interest in the radiance of the water and in the way whites, blues, and yellows turn the marine surface into a space of light. It is not a matter of imitation, but of an affinity within a long tradition of artists fascinated by the relationship between sea, color, and luminosity.

However, YUNI R. P. takes that tradition toward a more materially emphatic painting. The imprint of the spatula remains visible and turns every color plane into a small structure. Up close, the painting may approach abstraction; from a distance, those spots and directions reorganize themselves as sails, reflections, vegetation, figures, or horizons. That tension between abstraction and representation is one of the most attractive aspects of his work.

Photographs can barely convey this character completely. Face to face with the canvas, the relief of the oil and the changes produced by light incidence give the works a presence and depth that exceed the two-dimensional image. The result is an immediate, vital, and recognizable painting, characterized by strong chromatic energy and by a deeply optimistic vision of the landscape.

Yuniesky Rodríguez Peña’s public career includes solo and group exhibitions in Cuba and the presence of his work in international private collections. His work has also been widely disseminated internationally through platforms and organizations dedicated to contemporary art. His works are collected in several places in Europe both privately and institutionally.

Artwork by the artist Yuni created in high-quality professional oil on canvas.
Size: 73 x 52 cm of painting.
Original edition.
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The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
“This lot contains visualizations produced with AI. Please consult the original photographs to verify the real condition of the work.”

This singular oil-on-canvas work is a neo-figurative and pop-surrealist piece with reminiscences of vibrant impressionism. The composition presents an anthropomorphic character—a cat elegantly dressed in an electric blue suit, a golden bow tie, and a blue venetian mask—driving a gondola through a Venetian canal lit by sunset. The generous load of pictorial matter and the expressive use of the spatula stand out, generating a rich tactile texture in the clothing, the fur, and the reflections on the water. The color palette presents a strong complementary contrast between the warm golden, orange, and reddish tones of the architecture and the sparkling water, and the deep blues and turquoises of the central figure, creating a poetic, theatrical scene enveloped in the mystery of the carnival.