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Wayacon (Julian Espinosa Rebollido)

About the Artist

Wayacon in Cienfuegos, Cuba. February, 2000  (Photograph © Anthony Hart Fisher).
Wayacon in Cienfuegos, Cuba. February, 2000 (Photograph © Anthony Hart Fisher).
Wayacon in Cienfuegos, Cuba. November, 2003 (Photograph © Anthony Hart Fisher).
Wayacon in Cienfuegos, Cuba. November, 2003 (Photograph © Anthony Hart Fisher).

The artist known as Wayacon was born Julian Espinosa Rebollido in 1931 in Guanaroca, in the province of Cienfuegos, Cuba. Interviewed by Gerald Mouial in 2003 he said, “I am of humble origins. At present, I am 72 years old, but officially I am 62. When I was born it was necessary to pay for the (birth) registration... Afterwards, in 1941, my birth was registered.”
Wayacon is a self-taught Cuban painter who seems remarkably unifluenced by the work of other artists or the predilections of critics. He explained his nickname: “Wayacon is a fish that swims in all kind of water, both dirty and clean. I was called the same thing because as a youngster I was rather unruly. I lived inside the Cemetery of Reina and inside an abandoned Spanish fortress. I lived inside the tombs; nobody disturbed me and I took my girlfriends there.”

Like his namesake, Wayacon paints on all kinds of materials - wood, canvas, scraps of cardboard - in mixed media, incorporating wax, buttons, pieces of wood, forks and spoons into the texture of his paintings. He also makes sculpture – mostly of wood and bones. “I began painting when I was a child, but at that time there were not many opportunities.… At that time I worked with bone a lot, I sculpted it. I had not attended art school. I lived here, I had a workshop, and I sold my paintings. I barely attended school. I studied until third grade, I have learned mostly from others.”

Today he lives primarily in the Villa Clara town of Remedios, but he exhibits his art with the group of self-taught artists in Cienfuegos: “I live a nomadic lifestyle. I sleep here in Remedios or in a house of a friend of mine, or in the house of José, or in the house of Aida Morales, or…”

His work has been exhibited in the United States as well as in Cuba. 
(Thanks to Gerald Mouial for the above quotes from Magic Art in Cuba).

Region:
Wayacon
SKU: WAY-0305

Tempera, mixed media on cardboard
(15 1/2" x 9", not including handle), c.2000
Framed

$550 framed

Sin Titulo (Nude woman and large animal)
SKU: WAY-2201

c.1997
Oil, wax and mixed media on canvas (11" x 20").

Ex. collection of Jonathan Fisher,
purchased from artist 2000.

$450

Wayacon - Raton con Cuchara y Tenedor
SKU: WAY-005

1997
Oil, wax and mixed media on canvas
(11 x 20)

10% off

$350 $315

Wayacon
SKU: WAY-0003

Oil and wax on canvas
(13 x 9 1/2), 2000

25% off

$295

Product Status: 
ON HOLD
Pants
SKU: WAY-0307

Oil, acrylic, mixed media on cotton jeans.
(36" x 22"), c.2000

$600

Product Status: 
Sold
Dos Mamitas
SKU: WAY-0103

Oil and mixed media on cardboard.
(14 x 18).
Framed.

$ 550 framed

Product Status: 
Sold
La Reina de los Suenos
SKU: WAY-0102

Wayacon (Julian Espinosa)

Cuba
Oil on board, with frame by artist.
(27" x 16"), 1999

20% off

$550

Product Status: 
Sold
Wayacon
SKU: Waya-7

Oil on board
(15 1/2x15), 1999

$450

Product Status: 
Sold
13 y 17
SKU: WAY-0303

Tempera, mixed media on cotton shirt fabric
(17" x 8 1/4"), c.2000

$450

Product Status: 
Sold
Bag Painting
SKU: WAY-0304

Tempera, mixed media on woven plastic shopping bag
(19" x 15", not including handle), c.2000

$300

Product Status: 
Sold
Hanger 2
SKU: WAY-0306

Tempera, mixed media on cardboard
(13" x 9", not including handle), c.2000

$300

Product Status: 
Sold
Mujeres Desnudas - Wayacon
SKU: WAY-004

Oil and wax on canvas
(20 1/2x11 1/2), 1997

$350

Product Status: 
Sold