© Rogelio López Marín (Gory)

Cuban artist Rogelio López Marín, also known as Gory, began his career as a painter, gaining recognition from the 1981 exhibition “Volume One” which signified the rise of the Cuban renaissance in visual arts. After working as a photographer for many years at Revolucion y Cultura magazine and winning awards for his photo essays, Gory put down his brushes and dove into the world of photography, manipulating the images by hand. He later used digital manipulations that distinguished his work. Curator and art critic Irinia Leyva says, “Gory’s photographic body of work is indebted to his paintings, establishing between the two media a feedback, a ‘give and take’ from the canvas to the camera and vice versa. His perspicacious eye can discover the most surreal situations in everyday reality, and by capturing them through his lens makes us gaze with fresh eyes.” Gory’s work is now on display at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL, coordinated by the Southeast Museum of Photography, until February 4, 2012.