Pedro Pablo Oliva

CubaNow - The Digital Magazine of Cuban Arts and Culture.
 "I feel that people should not lose the thread, because they then lose things.  I have not wanted to lose the thread that ties me to Pinar del Rio, the thread that I have held from childhood and that makes me feel my little shoes still cavort there...I remain in Pinar del Rio because I have my children here and because I believe that the province needs for people not to leave.  Once I said that Pinar del Rio was a province in transit, but I believe that one must remain."

Thus commented Pedro Pablo Oliva who was born in Pinar del Rio in 1949, and won the National Fine Arts Award in 2006, about the place where he was born and still lives.  The artist has, since 1998, opened in his personal residence, an interesting and successful project that has become an important nucleus of the cultural life of Pinar del Rio province.

The Pedro Pablo Oliva House-Workshop has many attractions.  In the interior of this eclectic dwelling at the close of the 19th century lies a gallery with works of foreign and Cuban creators side by side, along with a well-stocked library that specializes in Arts and Literature and which provides a study opportunity (including Internet access) to hundreds of students and professors of plastic arts every year.

The project - already an institution - has been visited by many people and constitutes a completely free and public space.  Every year, two prizes deliver cash to finance artistic projects of local artists, and some books dedicated to the study of art and literature on the island are also sponsored.

Oliva has held more than twenty personal and collective exhibitions, and his work is to be found in collections in Spain, Italy, France, the United States, Brazil, Switzerland, Mexico, Canada, Germany and Cuba, as well as in the prestigious auction houses of Christie's and Sotheby's.

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