PASSION FOR ART GALLERIES: OBISPO 453
Eladio Mirada the man in charge of OBISPO 453. Photo: OBISPO 453
This is a private business of family initiative, which is committed to the marketing of paintings. “We have the artisanal souvenir, but the ones with most movement are the paintings. We receive visits by many foreigners from Europe and the United States, who have a lot of culture and understanding of what is painting, watercolor, and therefore we sell that very well. We have oil on canvas, acrylic paint, manufactured paper and mixed technique; we have work done in charcoal and lacquer, collage. There are several techniques, and there is an audience for everything. The important thing is not to lose the Cuban idiosyncrasy, for it to be Cuban art and it evokes Cuba both within the country and abroad. That’s why the motives are the Cuban daily life, Havana’s environment specifically “, Eladio Miranda explains.
“Many Cubans also come, both visitors and private businesses, restaurants or rental houses owners, who want to buy pictures for their business. There are people who order a certain type of work, and they come here because what we promote as art convinces them. There is a curious thing, and it’s the people who come here because they want to get in touch with the artist and order a family painting, something like nineteenth-century portraits, and people want to have a portrait in oil and a memory of their family. In that there is a very interesting resurgence”.
Why did you decide to start this business?
“Before there was a gallery here, but it didn’t work because there was no good selection criteria, nor were they clear about what they were looking for to show in this space. Of course, that failed, and then my wife, my in-laws, the whole family, decided to take up the project ourselves. I studied painting when I was young, and I don’t know how to paint nor I’m an artist, but I do have knowledge about art, and how to market it. We started from scratch, but we prepared the space, we got in touch with artists, with suppliers, we started looking for paintings that had not only a commercial outlet, but also artistic value, and the experience has been incredible. People have come who want to show their works here, because it’s an environment that allows us to appreciate art in this style of painting everyday life, which is the general concept of the gallery”.
How do you select the pieces?
“When we are going to include a new painter, we all discuss about it, we see the finish of the piece, the subject it addresses and that corresponds to what we want here, the quality of the technique used is very important, no matter what technique is, as long as it has quality and artistic value. There are people who have come to us to propose certain works of art, but we have had to tell them that this is not the space for a more elitist or specialized art”.
Foreigners come to art galleries looking for colors like these. Photo: Cubastay