Misleidys Castillo. Anatomies

Misleidys Francisca Castillo Pedroso was born in Güines, a small town near Havana, Cuba, on September 28, 1985. She was born with brain, hearing and autistic impediments. She has always lived in her own secluded world, inserted in a familiar environment. Painting with watercolors and pencils has been her great passion since early childhood. Her father left home when she was a young kid. As a result, she acquired a rather particular vision of masculinity: a caricatured stereotype of the super strong and muscular man who marks his anatomy extending his arms up and down.

“The family is unsure of the exact date, but a few years ago, Misleidys Francisca Castillo Pedroso began painting muscular male figures, in various states of undress, on construction paper. After cutting the figures out, she would install them methodically all over the apartment, using precisely cut pieces of packing tape, spaced evenly around the figures’ edge. Some of the men were a few inches tall while others approached eight feet, stretching from floor to ceiling. Then came the body parts—severed hands, feet, and heads floating free. One day, she started painting faces and bodies with cut-away views that revealed brightly colored abstract tissue and organs. Recently, she began painting female figures with bikini outfits, and groupings of heads that are joined together depicting generations, twins, families, or some other relationship. Her work is constantly evolving”, Phillip March Jones, Director Klein /Berst Gallery. New York