It is always a source of pride when an artist and fellow countryman obtains an evidently important accolade in any city in the world. That is why the news was shared across internet social networks at rocket speed and many were already talking about Víctor Rafael Blanco, and his Quirón awarded first prize in metal sculpture at the Hershey Gallery, of which Víctor is a member with an active organic life and very good public acceptance.

The award ceremony took place in the North American city of Harrisburg, during the exhibition for members of its Art Association, under the attentive and marvelling gaze of spectators who did not cease to praise the good use of eating utensils in a work that is part warrior, part beast, and beautiful in its own right.

It is also gratifying to see how skilfully bent forks form the skeleton, the helmet of the battling centaur; the spoons, polished and manipulated at the whim of Pauyet’s creator, form the rest of the figure and give life to what would be just another representation of a mythological being.

But it is not so. The piece stands with gallantry and seems to come to life. The beast, half man, half animal, is in an attack position, as denoted by the forward inclination of its axis and its raised left leg as if at the start of a charge.

After discovering the material used for the work, the magnificence and captivating power of this sculpture, approximately 80 cm in height, stands out amongst more than fifty works in disparate techniques.

Víctor, who also resides temporarily in Kentucky, has been multiply awarded with over 15 prizes in various fine arts salons in the city of portals. His work has been widely recognised not only within the gigantic and imperishable production of Pauyet, with over a quarter of a century now lived, but also when he was an apprentice in three-dimensional work and a dreamer of goldsmithing.

Another of the Cubans awarded at the Hershey Gallery was the Camagüeyan Oscar Rodríguez Lassería, with the work God of the Waters, in mixed technique and worked from religious syncretism, with warm colours and high-flying figurative motifs like mandalas, fish, fabrics, eyes, in a humanoid configuration that seems to evoke Oshún, patroness of the rivers, or the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre.

Víctor Rafael will have a personal exhibition with over 40 works in this same gallery starting in October, where the colour of Cuba and Avilanian daily life will be very well represented.