The world of Douglas Lucas is like the one we live in, but the skin is different. The artist breaths daily between filigree and ironwork, and in each new piece he gives us an adventure of creation related with time. In a fast process in which he merges with his wide imagination, he assembles the piece that felt in “nets” of his talent. The forms of objects and animals that cross in front of his eyes are interpreted by the creator in original and beautiful versions that carry his hallmark.
One day, a long time ago, he woke up to Art. The metals had seduced him since the period in which he was working the tinplate, which showed the way to the former technician that one day, encouraged by his wife, focused all of his desires on the artistic creation. He never forgets the first piece, that wire rod which was transformed into a horse with filigree. Since that time, his artistic “trot” doesn’t stop, and crosses through the most intricate walks.
Douglas Lucas (Havana, 1970), autodidact in these paths of creation, is today one of the most authentic artists of volume. His dedication to work has been such that he has won numerous awards, like some Prizes in different editions of the International Craft Fair (FIART), Cuba. This was a big surprise for him because he had never desired it or thought about it; but the awards come because of the originality and technical skills in his works: carriages or “artifacts”, as he usually calls them, which seem to come from another creative dimension…
Douglas Lucas shows a particular interest for everything that is colonial and historical: traps, armors, candelabras, locomotives, tables, lamps, and many details from other epochs, specially the medieval one, are within the objects that seem to come from another times. There is no magic; the art emanates from the depth when encouraged by talent. Because when the incisive poetic-artistic invention plays with reality and appropriates its images, interpreting them from the individual perspective, the result can be of a huge psychological impact. To dream/ to imagine/ to experiment with the forms, to play with the world that surrounds us, to contrast materials, textures and the diverse, are characteristics that emerge when one has contact with the work of the sculptor Douglas Lucas.
A fascinating gallery of objects, which play even with the mind of the spectator in their capricious landscape that challenges all logic or the law of gravity, breaths in the space of phantasy of the sculptor for years. From these artifacts-machineries-sculptural inventions…, that play from the volume and dance in front of our eyes in their impossible world, emerges a fairy tale that surpasses the unimaginable and gives few keys about the real story.
In a long way trying to find a personality on iron, the metal, to be more extensive, has found the basis of his creations; those that in exhibitions, fairs and dissimilar events dazzle the public, whether by the originality of the designs, the finish, or simply by the spontaneity of forms when they cross in the space…It’s no coincidence that in one occasion, the famous sculptor and professor, the late Ramón Casas, sentenced: “The approach to Douglas Lucas’ work allows recognizing the perfect mastery of the dissimilar materials that he creates with, with a very personal and coherent expression. His perseverance, rigor and responsibility distinguish him as a sculptor”.
A vital and visited space can be enjoyed today at the studio that carries his name: Douglas Lucas, site in San Rafael Boulevard 102 between Industria and Consulado, Centro Habana. His creations vibrate here, in a full dialogue with the comings and goings of a public that is always present. There, in the magic place that functions as the Douglas Lucas’ store of dreams, we can feel the expressive charge, direct and honest, of someone that regains, every day, a view of the world attached to land, to the fundamental human experiences. And among the sculptures which appear like fruits in these last creative times of the author, we can find works (lights, utilitarian, decorative…) that take the responsibility, the capacity, the love and the versatility of this creative/talented artist.
