Eduardo Roca (Choco)

Cuban painter and engraver Eduardo Roca, alias Choco, was awarded the 2017 National Prize for Visual Arts on November 3, for his valuable contribution to the development of visual arts on the island.

The artist has a degree in Art History from the University of Havana and has developed an important teaching career in art institutions in Cuba and Spain.

Choco’s work is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, such as Cuba’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, los Estados Unidos; the Museo de la Estampa, in Mexico; that of Kochi, in Japan; the Miró Foundation, in Palma de Mallorca; and Swedish institutions.

Among the awards the artist holds are the Engraving Prize of the 1977 National Youth Visual Arts Exhibition; the Medal of Honor at the 1981 Graphics Exhibition, Bulgaria; and the Grand Prize of the 4th Triennial Engraving Institute, Japón, 1999.

Within Cuba, he was recognized in 1995 with the Order for National Culture, y, en 2000, he won the First Prize in Japan’s Kochi Engraving Biennial.

Está familiarizado con la técnica de impresión, en particular la colagrafía, y la domina como pocos.,. Aparecen elementos neoexpresionistas en su creación, donde siempre está presente la cubanía más intensa. Eso es evidente tanto en los rasgos físicos de sus figuras humanas como en las texturas de la piel y la atmósfera de cada composición..