Ernest - XL - Nereida

Ernest M. is a young Cuban artist trained in the city of Manzanillo, Granma, in eastern Cuba. He currently lives and works in Havana, where he continues developing a constant pictorial production and an artistic trajectory largely focused on researching the human figure and its relationship with the aquatic environment.

In recent years, the artist has developed a series dedicated to immersion, water, and the human figure, turning these elements into one of the most recognizable traits of his pictorial language. Women suspended beneath the surface, faces pierced by reflections, fish, movements of the hair, optical distortions, bubbles and changes of light repeatedly appear in his compositions, not as mere decorative resources, but as part of an increasingly defined visual universe.

One of the most interesting aspects of his painting is precisely the treatment of water as a pictorial and psychological element. Ernest manages to represent the water surface, reflections and the deformations produced by light through brushstrokes that oscillate between figuration, expressive realism, and moments close to hyperrealism. However, his intention does not seem to be limited to faithfully reproducing a scene: he uses those distortions to transform the face and the human body, creating images that lie between the real, the dreamlike, and the introspective.

His palette is clearly dominated by deep blues, turquoise, greens, and marine tones, which frequently contrast with reds, ochres, oranges and warm tones applied to the skin, the fish, the flowers or the reflections. This chromatic opposition gives a strong visual presence to the works and makes the figure emerge from the aquatic background even when it seems completely integrated into it.

It is also characteristic the way the artist composes. In many of his paintings, the bouyancy line crosses directly the face or body of the character, dividing the image into two realities. In others, the viewer observes the scene completely submerged. That choice generates a sense of silence, suspension, and isolation that appears repeatedly in his work. Water thus becomes a boundary, refuge, and space of transformation.

Within the series there are compositions with a more intimate and contemplative character, while others present a freer, gestural, and expressive painting. This variety allows observing the evolution of an artist who continually experiments within a recognizable theme without being limited to a single formula.

Another notable aspect is the materiality of the works. The photographs allow appreciating the overall structure of the compositions and their chromatic richness, but the painting acquires a considerably greater dimension when viewed physically, where the variations of brushwork, color overlays, texture, and small changes in light can be perceived more clearly, building the sense of depth.

The repetition of certain elements—the female figure, the fish, the partly submerged face, the floating hair, the surface reflections and the intense blue of the water—is helping to shape a recognizable artistic identity. In a young creator, this coherence is especially significant, as it demonstrates the will to construct a continued body of work rather than isolated pieces.

Ernest currently maintains an active artistic production and continues to develop his career through exhibitions and projects both in Cuba and in Spain and other international contexts. His works have progressively found buyers and collectors outside of Cuba and currently form part of private collections and galleries in different countries of Europe and Latin America.

His paintings are also regularly offered at Catawiki auctions, where his work has been well received by the public and collectors.

Acquiring a work by Ernest means approaching the work of a young Cuban artist who is still in full growth, but who already possesses especially valuable elements within an emerging career: a clearly identifiable theme, continuity in his pictorial research, growing mastery of color and the representation of water and, above all, the search for a personal visual identity.

His aquatic series currently represents one of the most personal facets of his production and constitutes a good example of how a seemingly everyday motif can be transformed, through painting, into a reflection on the body, identity, silence, beauty, and perception.

Water does not function solely as a stage in Ernest's work: it acts as a second language that fragments, transforms, and reconstructs the human figure.

Artwork by artist Ernest created in oil on high-quality professional canvas.
Dimensions: 70 x 100 cm of painting.
Original edition.
Shipping will be carried out via United Parcel Service (UPS) to Spain and Europe, and via FedEx to the rest of the world. The artwork will be rolled and protected with multiple layers of packaging, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube.
Once the work is paid for, three days are required for the packaging process and delivery to the shipping company.
The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country.
This lot contains AI-generated visualizations. Please check the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the work.

This captivating oil-on-canvas work stands out for its notable contemporary realism and brilliant mastery in representing water and light refraction. The composition presents the hyperexpressive portrait of a woman submerged in crystal-clear waters, whose fixed gaze and intensely red lips emit a magnetic force that contrasts with the deep turquoise and greenish tones of the surrounding aquatic environment. The artist masterfully captures the golden glints of sunlight glinting on the skin, the weightlessness of floating hair, bubbles of air, and the subtle presence of fish orbiting around the face, achieving a serene, refreshing, and poetically enveloping atmosphere.