A chronological guide to Julio Neira’s major artistic series, connecting painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and the recurring symbols of Cuban life.
Julio Neira’s work moves between painting, graphic art, sculpture, installation, performance, and muralism. Rather than treating these as separate practices, his series repeatedly connect the human figure, architecture, ritual, memory, baseball, the sea, and the changing Cuban landscape.
Then David Wanted to Kill Goliath (1995), From Hell to Paradise (1997), and Rehearsing for a Classical Carnival Parade (2000–2001) use allegory, public spectacle, and constructed objects to question power, collective memory, and civic identity. Works from this period appeared in Havana exhibitions and public-cultural settings.
Mutations of the Cuban Landscape (2006), Variations About Everyday Thoughts (2006–2008), Boarded Memory (2008–2010), and Silence of the City (2010) explore continuous social and physical transformation through charcoal, graphite, acrylic, installation, and architectural imagery.
The Secret of the Samurai (2011), Cuban Cigars (2013), The Forbidden Codes of the Samurai II (2013–2015), and Counterbalance of the Sinking (2015) combine sports, ritual, humor, and symbolic objects. Several works entered Cuba’s National Council of Visual Arts collection or appeared in exhibitions in Cuba and Mexico.
This later cycle brings together drawings, paintings, sculptural objects, and short videos shaped by the sea, Havana’s Malecón, and the atmosphere surrounding the city’s 500th anniversary. The complete project already has a dedicated page on this website and is not repeated here.