Carlos Quintana – Betrachtung –

Contemplation as a synthesis of Santería and Buddhism

The figures and portraits of Carlos Quintana (Havanna, 1966) have in common a self-contained attitude: the distance, emotionless facial expressions and the barely comprehensible gaze, which characterize the figures of Carlos Quintana, testify to a kind of introversion or rather to contemplation. They are focused on something that seems to be outside of the visible or internally. The figures are often depicted against a contrasting colored background and without a concrete environment: whatever is not relevant for the „contemplation“ (the title of the exhibition) is consequently left out by the artist. Much of these artworks remain implicitly, „unvollendet“ and thus develop a peculiar force, as it stimulates thought and imagination – thus animating the audience to continue the process of contemplation initiated by the artist into and for himself.