 back to ThinkTech. This is Community Matters and we're talking to Derwin Lava and he's a local Latin artist. I mean local in the sense that he lives here, he studied here, he became what he is today as an artist here, right? And he just had a show in New York City on the west side, on the west side highway, on the docks there, which is where all the shows are these days, on the Hudson River and we want to talk to him about how he got there, what he did there. I want to start, oh, welcome to the show Derwin. Thank you for having me, it's a pleasure being here. New York is the mecca. New York is where the art is in this country for sure and you know I was telling you before that on 57th Street we have all these art dealers that deal in multi-million dollar you know art and the second second stories of those buildings on 57th Street right near Carnegie Hall and make it 50, right near 57th and maybe 53rd I'm not sure. Anyway and then you got Madison Avenue where there's a couple of museums on Madison Avenue. It's not too far from Fifth Avenue where the Metropolitan Museum of Art is and on Madison Avenue there's all these art shops. I mean Greenwich Village and in Soho there are all these art shops, all these exhibits. Now the Hudson River that's something new. Oh and downtown because they opened up the big gallery downtown right near the Twin Towers Museum and that's also fabulous so what you have is art is all over the city all over Manhattan and it's all kinds of art. It's the mecca for art. I can't even name all the art museums and places and artists who show and you went to New York? Wow! You showed in an exhibit on the west side in Chelsea. Wow! I'm so impressed actually. Yeah it was a wonderful experience. The exhibition was appeared in 1992 and I mean the response from the people was amazing. The shows brings between 40 to 50,000 people every year and just the reaction just seeing so many there was I think over 300 exhibitors out of here from like 39 different countries and each exhibit a lot of the galleries and things like that. They have many artists in it so the exhibition was I mean so many people from all over the places and then just the people coming and seeing the show was talking to everybody for hours I mean the whole day was just seeing new people new people coming and seeing and just talking to everybody for like seven or eight hours non-stop. Oh wow! So it was definitely a great experience. I felt I could get tired. Well you know sometimes I didn't even have time to eat because I will buy the food and I will bring it put on my table and as soon as I grab it by I have like three or four people that want to talk to me about my work so I start talking to them and by the end of the show like we close at eight or we leave nine ten and by the time my food is still under the table I never got to eat and I did that for like a couple of the days you know bring the food in the morning early in the morning and I will go all day without eating anything basically just talking to people because so many people from all other places and people just enjoying my work I mean they really enjoy the the art and all the pieces that I brought in yeah especially the big one I think that was the main attraction for them having that big piece. How big is big? Well the one that is a night by 14 I think we have some photos of that one of how the show was a layout and the the piece I mean everybody would just stop and just admiring that the piece and coming and looking at it everybody taking photos with me and the piece and then them into the because it's I mean night by 14 feet is a pretty large size and then everybody else just start that was kind of like bringing people in and then people start looking at their work and they just spend their 20 30 minutes looking at it talking to this was called the Art Expo New York 2019 yes that's you and behind it is what that big piece you were talking about. Yes that's the big painting and actually I got selected as the best new exhibitor for the Art Expo New York 2019 so that was definitely a great surprise and you know it was a great recognition so I was very happy about that. Yeah. Who's the woman? Oh her name is Linda she's one of the organizers. Organizers over there and she's the one who goes around interviewing the artist and giving different awards. I wished I had a wonderful time interviewing you. I wish we would have somebody here from Hawaii on the show. Definitely would be a great opportunity. I'm sure they'll be the next time. Oh definitely definitely well next time it's going to be I got several events coming up now next month I got invited to do the Biennale in Mantua so I'm going to be showing my work at the in Italy yes so I'm going to be showing my work at the Museo Gonzaga in Mantua. Fabuloso Moe. Yes so that's an Italian word. That's an next event and then I'm planning to do the kind of similar to the exhibition in New York they do it in Miami red dot Miami and that's in December so right now all my work and everything that I'm doing is preparing for that exhibition in December which is the same thing about 40 to 50 thousand people go there to see the work and I'm looking forward to that. You're in the circuit now. Well I would say that you know more people and more people are getting to know my work and that's what is important. So let's reel it back a little bit how how did you get set up in New York in the art expo? Well I wanted to show I've been kind of researching for a while now how to do there and then I contacted people who do the promotion for our expo and then they they offer me a space at their exhibition and normally the way that they set up the booth is they got all the big galleries up in the front and then they have like solo artists that are already kind of established or they've been showing for a while and then at the end of the exhibition they have like all the new upcoming artists and when I contact them originally they offer me a space at a solo but they were very impressed with my work they really like my work and so you write to them? Yes I contact them. Art Expo is going to happen if you want to be in it so you write to them and you send them pictures of your pictures yes and they take a look and then they get back to you yes and no not everybody who writes to them gets a spot. Well I mean they have a selection process of the work and then like I say they offer me a spot at a solo exhibition but then they really like my work and they put me in a better place actually I would say that they put me at the beginning where all the galleries work and I was there by myself which was a great learning experience because I have to do everything myself you know the chipping everything from here from Hawaii all the artwork then getting over there and then setting everything up because I send everything roll all the canvas all the paintings. Well you take them off the frame I send everything I roll you can't send them in the frame that would be impossible like chipping such a large pieces and all the pieces that I have were the night by 14 but then all the other pieces were four by five and then the latest painting that I did which I did it specifically for that show that was a five by seven and I think we have a photo of that one that we can see later on oh that's the one that's the painting this is a five by seven yes that's five by seven so all these paintings are very large and sending this I have to roll everything and then I send all the frames all the wood to stretch them and I got there and I have pretty much a little afternoon the first day of the show it wasn't a Thursday so I got there Tuesday afternoon I have to set up a little bit and then Wednesday I have to stretch every single piece you had to do it I have to do it so I stretch everything all the canvas I didn't from early in the morning I was working on to literally I finished like it's hard you got a stretch it so it's flat well it's only one of you well I had a friend he flew from Miami he came to help me and I mean thanks to him I was able to to accomplish the exhibition I couldn't done by myself yeah and we were a stretching and working and setting everything literally that Wednesday we finish like around midnight we got kicked out of the place because they have to close just setting everything and then the next day in the morning was the opening for the show so we were there making sure that everything was good and that we had everything set out for and the next day I mean I had no idea how many people come to the to the exhibition and then just talking to all these people the validation of my work was an amazing experience because people really really like my work and people really enjoy it I mean they felt that was something that different that I never seen before and they really enjoy the be able to talk to me because a lot of the places where they went so I'm not alone I mean to me this is sort of it jumps out at you and it distinguishes itself and furthermore is its museum quality in the sense that if it was hanging if that 9 by 14 is hanging on a museum wall I would spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you were trying to tell me because it's a lot in all your paintings there was so much detail and so much symbolism you know that a museum goer would really focus in on what you were doing and that's exactly the same reaction that I have from people people were looking people will go in and they spend 30 40 minutes just looking at the painting and taking photos and then looking at the other paintings and they were trying to figure it out the symbolism in it and what was the message behind the paintings and everybody will come out with their own stories so it was also funny to listen to a lot of the people because they will come and they'll tell me their stories first and then I will tell them my story and and they enjoy that enjoying and then also enjoying the looking at the paintings and seeing all the different techniques all the different styles combined to one and that was something that caught a lot of people attention people will come and talk to me from all over the world so I got a lot of people also inviting me to go to like different college university to show my work to talk to the students and then a lot of the schools yes our schools and people I have a students coming to me actually I had a couple that came the first day they were talking to me they spent like an hour there talking and looking all the work then the next day they came back and they brought their art teacher to see the world and then I told you you were good so many people have the same reaction I have a I had a guy who he just flew from South Korea and he just wanted to come and see my work so he came to see the work yes he said he just came to so that definitely was a great validation of my work and you know they inspire you know everybody will come and say oh you know you inspire me to do this and inspire me to because people so like a different idea now and they got inspired but at the same time I was inspired by them because seeing the reaction for all these people then that kind of inspire me to work harder and to paint more so definitely was an amazing experience and a great change with the people yeah I want to talk to you about that so these people who would come they were from all over yes they were from the art world and they were people just you know maybe some tourists also I suppose and I mean there's so many museums in New York there's so much attention to art there's so much care about it and and a market and a market a lot of art trading all the time so what kind of conversations would you have what would they ask you about would they ask you about your background would they ask you about your Hispanic culture and orientation what would they say what would you what would you tell them definitely they will you know when I told them that I was Cuban they they have a lot of questions obviously cool cool is always a topic that people are always interesting about that topic and they have a lot of questions about my work and then when they start seeing a lot of the symbolism into my work and related to Cuba that was something that you know a conversation that most people always had and and then I saw some of the reactions that I was not expecting people will come and they enjoy my work so much there is some people start crying some people have so that you know seeing the reaction from people was something unexpected for me I definitely was not expecting that type of reaction from the people but definitely a lot of people were touched I saw a lot of I talked to a lot of Cubans and people from Venezuela and they were touched by my work they were touched they talked to me about their family coming to this country and you know the experience of Venezuela right now yes definitely that's why that's why a lot of people from Venezuela have that connection because what the things that are happening in Venezuela right now and when they see my work they can relate to a lot of all the things that I do actually the things that I do and then the the music and that's the thing a lot of my work yes I have message and things like that but the main thing in my work is the music and happiness that music brings to life always music because it's something that you know I'm trying to be positive and I'm trying to tell people regardless all the things that happen around us that we cannot control music is something that we can always have and it makes us a better person make us feel better and that's what I was trying to tell people and people were reacting to that people were enjoying that because there you know like people from Venezuela they're the situation that they have right now and some other people from Cuba what they had in the past so they were very happy about seeing my work and see like you say the quality of their work and the symbolism the different styles all the things that combine my work and people love it yeah you know we're in the middle of a whole thing about South America and Central America maybe we are more conscious of it because of what President Trump is doing at the border all that maybe we are more conscious more aware of the people from South of the border the whole Hispanic culture the whole South America really and I wonder if that feeds into this somehow if I come and I see your work I said ah this is Latin this is South of the border this is the color and the sound and you know the vitality of things you know in Central and South America I want that because it's a special moment in history not necessarily a good one want to capture and I want what you have captured about the culture the blend of cultures did you see that did you hear that did anyone say that to you well like definitely people can you know my my work in a way is a little abstract and so people can't create their own stories and I was talking to a guy from Colombia actually I met many people from Colombia but a lot of people will come and they will look at my work and if and they tell me stories about their towns and not related you know they will see the architecture because it's Hispanic is a lot of your work is called the colonial work and things like that so they will come and look at and they say you know I live in this town in Colombia small town but the church it just looked like the church that you know all the cathedral look like this or the other stones and the streets so they're they're putting their own story into the painting so and that's why they were connecting to it because they were coming and they were telling me all these stories from all over the places and no matter where you go in South America all those countries that were at one point were colony of Spain they all have the same architecture and the same part of the same history what you paint is applicable really yes it's I mean I'm being a lot of people from Europe when they see it too as well they connect to it because you know again the architecture the music things like that they can relate to it so it's very I would say international is something that is not a specific to one place although my background is Cuban and I trying to depict the Cuban culture and the Cuban landscape in a way of applies to everybody and everybody can identify themselves with the work and with the painting yeah the abstract and the symbolism it is reminiscent of Picasso but let me say that I think honestly you have taken Picasso to a new level it's more engaging to me it's more engaging than Picasso I have so many people telling me you know the same thing in a different way a lot of people come and they say oh you're the modern Picasso you know the contemporary Picasso and they were calling me different names and I mean in a good way I felt honored to be compared in a way to Picasso although a lot of the work is not pure Cubism or you know and I tell them I take elements for Cubism I take element from different aspect to realism abstraction and then I combine all these elements to create my work so it's not just but it you know they they have that feeling they look at and they say oh you're the contemporary Picasso so that was the reaction that a lot of people have I was not conscious though it just comes from the heart yeah oh definitely I got you know like I say to me is an honor that people compare me to Picasso I mean he was a definitely a great great you see anybody else in this space you see anybody else doing Latin you know motif this way you see anybody else doing you know this kind of painting in the exhibition or in other places you visit well not exactly you know nothing similar to my painting I mean people there is definitely there was a people like I say over 300 exhibitors from 39 different countries hundred hundred of our work I mean I couldn't even see international international I couldn't I didn't even see get to see all the art was there your booth and then you couldn't leave your paintings well I've been several times and then I have so many younger artists come and talk to me about their work and they want to show me their work and they want me to give them feedback on their work and I was trying to do that but a couple times I will leave my booth and as soon as I start walking like three four five minutes later my friend will text me and say I have like ten people here I want to talk to you and they want to meet you and so I have to come back and talk to the people and then I will walk away trying to meet some other artists and trying to see other people work because you know I want to enjoy the show as well but I didn't have the time I couldn't I start walking away and then my friend will call me back again and you got to come back I knew this would happen there was no time for me to like go anywhere the whole time I spent just talking to people but it also was a great experience meeting all the audits I mean so many new orders and so many people that I met and then I talked I learned a lot from talking to them I mean there was so many audits that I talked to and they were coming to ask me for feedback but at the same time when I talked to them I learned from them so it was a great experience and so the good market experience did you get the cards all these people yes I mean I got invited from I mean I got invitation from many many our galleries I got cars from all over the places I mean I don't know how many cars I got but invitation from all over the places right now I'm getting invitation from Sienna from Sienna I'm getting from Portugal and from in New York I got many many galleries that and I know you I actually know you there when I'm so happy to know you you're an international person I'm happy to know you too and so I got invitation from all these galleries right now and just kind of like trying to figure it out what is that you know my next step I got invitation from Dubai I got invitation yes I got an invitation to do an international exhibition for like 14 months going to different museums in Japan London all over but like I say right now and just kind of like deciding what is going to be the next step and what are the you know the best outcomes for me well sounds to me like this was beyond your expectation I mean you knew that New York was the mecca for art you knew that this was a big art show involving a lot of people you knew that they would a lot of people would come around because it's a mecca but you didn't know the intensity that you would find you didn't know how exactly how popular you were going to be among those people no definitely not and and given all the exchange between you and the people who hung around and and the and asked you questions engaged you for hours at a time and the other artists who wanted to compare notes with you probably had some ideas about the evolution of your own work some new strains you could you know bring into your work and I can you tell me what they are how how did this change your work this experience in New York well I don't think actually one thing that change I'm always gonna be changing my work is I'm gonna be making a smaller pieces the reason for that is because it's kind of hard to you know like to move and to do all these exhibitions all over the place internationally of chipping and everything else is it's kind of harder all we large pieces it's easier to restretch a small piece a lot of the small pieces I can just send already stretch which is easier for me to do that so that's one of the things that are gonna be changing on my work right now I started a new piece but I'm almost done working on that and that one is about 36 by 30 so is that feet inches 36 years so it's like about three feet tall and that's good enough for most people I know the museum would be happy with that size and a lot of the museums and things like that when you know when I talk to museums or places in Europe they want something smaller than one meter which is you know that that is a smaller than one meter and that I think that will be ideal for me to start making paintings that maybe something a smaller and then will be easy for me to send everywhere and then I can create more work because a lot of times I don't have a large inventory because my pieces are so large and take me long time to make and things like that but if I create a smaller pieces then I can work faster and then I can you know I have a larger inventory of work to show to people on all the different exhibitions my guess is that whatever your perception of value was before you made this trip it changed in other words the value of one of your pieces in your mind going out there was X dollars when you when you got there and you had this experience became X plus you know actually that didn't change I mean I have the same you know that the value of my work I always value a lot my work and and I know even going to New York all the publications through all the books that are you know coming out all the international art magazine that are publishing my book all my publishing my work I understand that there is a value into that and I understand that people like my work I just actually I just got published this month by Spotlight Mariusine and then another book that comes that is coming out that is called the 100 others of the future that they're publishing my work and so a lot of these based on all these art magazine all these and then all the art competitions and things like that the response that I get from the people I understand the value of my work so going to New York didn't change it I mean just kind of validate it and in a way and what's the next one well like I say you know Italy Mantra is the Viennese mantra is gonna be the next event that's gonna be sure yeah that's gonna be next month actually so I'm flying over there to museum those Gonzaga is gonna be where the show is and I would like to be present there and then after that I don't know what else I mean I between next month and December I don't know while the shows should there be opportunities for sure there's gonna be a lot of opportunities just got to create a lot of more of the work so I can have yeah plenty of paintings to be you know to be able to participate in all the different shows and things like that yeah well I hope I hope we stay in touch actually I love to rendezvous with you and one of these locate one of these you know cities that you're doing an expo or an exhibition and and be there with you with a camera wouldn't that be fabulous that would be amazing I mean I would love to I mean like I was hoping I was like man you know when I was there actually was thinking because the video they have all the paintings and then I had a design with my name and then you say they're when Honolulu Hawaii I was like how great would it be for you know to have somebody here from Hawaii actually recording these and promoting because I think it's important for the people here in the island a lot of the there is a lot of new artists and a lot of people here in Hawaii that would like to exhibit in New York some other places and then just having you know somebody that can kind of show them in a way like okay this is a this is what you need to do all these are the things that you can do to promote your work or to be able to to go and show your work in New York or some other places I think that would be a great opportunity for any new artists to to have that yeah it's great that you're associated with Hawaii I hope you always are I always would be associated with Hawaii I mean Hawaii is my second home I would say I've been living here for so long and I'm not going anywhere I just love living here in Hawaii great it's great to talk to you I'm so happy for your success I want to continue I want to be global I want you to be known everywhere and I'll try to do that thanks you know thank you Derwin Derwin Leyva he's an artist on Latin artists from Hawaii and he's on a huge global ascent and we're so happy to know him thank you Derwin thank you for being here