"Kcho”. Alexis Leiva

“KCHO” (Alexis Leiva) is a contemporary Cuban artist working in sculpture and mixed media. He was born in 1970 in Isla de la Juventud, Cuba, and graduated from the Elementary Art School of Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud, in 1986 and from the National School of Arts in Havana in 1990. Kcho has participated in numerous renowned international biennials, including Havana, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Gwangju, and Venice. His works are part of the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba; the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York; the Arizona State University Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona; the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain; the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation in Mallorca, Spain; the Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst in Aachen, Germany; the Van Reekum Museum in Apeldoorn, Netherlands; Les Cent Jours d’Art Contemporain of Montreal, Canada; the Galleria Civica di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, Italy; the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel; the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California; the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, France; the Gan Gallery in Tokyo, Japan; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received the Artistic Merit Diploma of the Superior Institute of Art in Havana (2001); the Prize for the Cuban Exhibition at the Biennial of the Caribbean at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2001); the Grand Prize at the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (1995); and the UNESCO Award for the Promotion of the Arts (1995).

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The sea is a recurring element in the work of KCHO. As a man from an island, he has explored the theme of the sea in many of his pieces, using this natural element as a powerful symbol. The sea can represent different meanings in his work, such as the idea of the island as a territory surrounded by water, the connection with nature and the marine environment, as well as the notion of freedom and the possibility of exploration and escape that the sea can symbolize. In his installations and sculptures, KCHO has used objects related to the sea, such as boats, oars, fishing nets, or nautical elements, to create works that engage with the maritime history of Cuba and the world, allowing him to explore broader concepts of identity, history, nostalgia, and above all, migration, a theme on which he has focused.