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• Arts and Culture
• Caribbean
• culture an traditions
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• Havana
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• Paint and Sculpture
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• 04 / 06 / 2009

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Below, wildly colorful mosaics and large, fanciful sculptures cover his home and fill his yard in an explosion of art that has transformed the humble neighborhood into a island of brightness among Havana's well-worn suburbs.

His home and studio are the epicenter of a work in progress in which Fuster, 62, has adorned houses on two streets with Picasso-like paintings and playful ceramic figures of the palm trees, roosters and crocodiles that reappear in all his art.

In front of his house, he has created a sort of tiled park that is a large communal chess board; behind that, a massive 25-foot (eight-meter) tall tribute to five Cuban agents jailed for spying in the United States, lauded in Cuba as the "Five Heroes."

It is a fantasy land that is Cuban to its core in its bright colors, comical icons and political undertones.

Bearded and bespectacled, fun-loving and hard-drinking, Fuster has been called the Picasso of the Caribbean for his quirky style and is one of Cuba's best-known artists overseas.

He has exhibited all over Europe and in the United States, which has a 47-year-old trade embargo against Cuba, although art is exempted. He has a website, www.josefuster.com, where his paintings, watercolors and ceramics are on sale for prices ranging above $10,000.

The Jaimanitas project, now 14 years in the making and, according to Fuster far from finished, is an attraction for locals and arts-minded international visitors.


(Reuters)