Alejandro Carballosa - Liturgy of Absence

Liturgy of Absence
The work is organized around a suspension of the sacred: a liminal space where angelic iconography, stripped of its usual triumphant solemnity, takes on an introspective and ambiguous dimension. The figure, folded in on itself, seems to withdraw both from contemplation and from revelation. There is no epiphany here, but a vestige; no manifestation of the divine, but the persistence of its trace.
The red vertical bursts into the austerity of the chiaroscuro like a semantic fissure. Wound, threshold or sacramental remainder, its presence introduces a tension between the materiality of the painting and the elusive condition of the transcendent. The contrast with the grayish corporeality of the angel accentuates that dissociation: the celestial loses its idealization and appears in a vulnerable, almost mortal form.
Absence is thus posed not as negation, but as a category of presence. What has disappeared continues to exert its gravity on the image, transformed into memory, residue and expectation. The figure does not represent the fall of faith, but the interval that follows its certainty: that territory where the sacred persists, even though it can no longer be apprehended through its old forms.
Liturgy of Absence proposes a reflection on the erosion of symbols, the fragility of beliefs, and the survival of the transcendent at the margins of its own disappearance. A liturgy without dogma, where silence replaces revelation and the image remains as the last receptacle of that which resists disappearing.

Alejandro Carballosa, Cuban visual artist and designer living in Spain, with a career marked by the exploration of force, emotion and beauty in the animal and human figure. His work combines technical realism with a contemporary vision, where color, light and movement acquire a symbolic and expressive language.
Formed in visual arts and design, he integrates the aesthetic sensitivity of classical art with modern resources, creating pieces that balance energy and introspection.
His work has been shown in collective and solo exhibitions, and is part of private collections in Germany and the United States
education
School/academy of plastic arts; baccalaureate in sculpture, painter
university
Bachelor's degree in Scenic Design; ISA, Havana, Cuba, 2023
Graduated 2011
workshop
2022. International Makeup Workshop taught by Italian master Piero Penisi
exhibitions
2011. Iconographic Salon Nicolás Guillén. UNEAC, Las Tunas. Cuba
2011. Exhibition “Vástagos.” Provincial Center of Plastic Arts, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2012. Martian Salon. Sculpture Workshop Gallery, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2012. Exhibition “Lithographs.” UNEAC, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2012. Exhibition “Final Integral Exercise.” Professional Academy of Plastic Arts, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2013. Martian Salon. Huellas Cultural Center, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2013. Exhibition “La Víspera.” Provincial Center of Plastic Arts, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2014. Salon “Guernica.” AHS, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2014. Salon “Plastic in April.” Provincial Center of Plastic Arts, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2014. Collective expo “Art, a Social Image.” Provincial Center of Plastic Arts, Las Tunas. Cuba.
2017. First Salon of Plastic Arts. Guáimaro Art Gallery, Camagüey. Cuba.
2017. Collective expo, Aires de Cubanía. Casa del Alba cultural, Havana. Cuba
2022. Thematic fashion show at ISA University of Arts
2024 private collections in Germany and the United States