Euro-African Life in Namibia

Omba Gallery is delighted to host the second ‘Riding Souls’, a solo exhibition by Cuban artist, Yasiel Palomino Pérez . The critically acclaimed ‘Riding Souls’ or ‘Cabalgando Almas’ in the Spanish, was first exhibited in Havana, Cuba and, after falling in love with Namibia soon after his arrival in January this year, Pérez made the decision to exhibit the second ‘Riding Souls.’ Using oil and acrylic paint in combination with fine and large, emotional brushstrokes, Pérez depicts various breeds of horses moving restlessly across large canvases. Looking at the paintings, one can almost hear the horses snorting impatiently through flared nostrils and faintly, the dull pounding of their hooves on the earth.   He seeks perfection and Pérez found it entirely in the temperament and physical nature of the horse. The Spanish word for ‘soul’ is ‘alma’ and there on his canvases spirited equestrian phantoms gallop and storm seemingly from nowhere but actually from the soft under-be...

   The very first time I saw a statue toppled was in April of 2003 and I saw it on television. It was an inauspicious day, I believe, because nothing was remarkable about it except perhaps for the unforgettable sight of a larger-than-life effigy of Saddam Hussein suspended at an awkward angle above Firdos Square in Baghdad, Iraq.     What impressed me more than anything during the ensuing broadcast was that the determination of the Iraqis to dismantle was equally matched by the determination of the statue which, to me, appeared to resist being taken down. It was a battle of wills (or craftsmanship) - man against his own monument. The Iraqis were dogged in their endeavour, this was the end of a political era for them, and were rewarded for their sustained efforts when the lifeless likeness of Saddam Hussein was removed from its imposing pedestal and relegated to history.     In the background, trying desperately to interpret and relay the signific...