![\"Fabelo](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Fabelo_02.jpg\")
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Photos by Brian Addison.<\/em><\/p>\n Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo has an obsession with women\u2014but a healthy obsession, as anyone who visits his first U.S. solo exhibit at Long Beach\u2019s Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) can see.<\/p>\n First off, he always places them on top, typically above or riding male roosters.<\/p>\n The artist often mixes mediums, whether it is taking a Chinese silk screening and painting both on and around the threading\u2019s details or drawing grotesquely beautiful parts of anatomy on book pages, Fabelo\u2019s art exudes a strange curiosity that lures its viewers in.<\/p>\n \u201cMy work is about relationships between people,\u201d Fabelo told the Post<\/em> while visiting MOLAA shortly before the exhibit opened last week. \u201cAnd the rooster is not only symbolic of sustenance but has a universal value of masculinity attached to it. Since I come from a maschismo-driven culture, it makes me sympathetic toward and deeply respectful of women and their role.\u201d<\/p>\n Fabelo claims an outright a \u201cdetestation\u201d of the treatment of women not just in Cuba but throughout Latin America. His artistic positioning of women dominating roosters while wearing rooster masks is something that, at least for Fabelo, is actually about balance\u2014not dominance. It is almost as if, were we to at least provide women the chance to dominate, the world will become more balanced.<\/p>\n \u201cThese images of women and other creatures, there\u2019s a sensuality represented,\u201d Fabelo said. \u201cThe literary references and parables I tell through painting show the need for balance between men and women\u2026 And it is through sensuality\u2014sensual forms of femininity and masculinity\u2014that I find myself attracted to artistically.\u201d<\/p>\n The forms Fabelo speaks of take shape by the way of fruit, animals, and various aspects of nature that he feels offers a direct metaphor for human sensuality, all of which have been inspired by his wife (who is also his muse).<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, it\u2019s about an experience,\u201d Fabelo said. \u201cIf I can take what I feel and imagine from the inspiration of my wife and put that outward, out to the people, I am happy.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Fabelo](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Fabelo_03.jpg\")
Fabelo\u2019s form of feminism isn\u2019t militaristic nor is it subtle. It\u2019s blatantly beautiful, sensual sometimes to the point of being sapphic, and captivatingly surrealistic, with his use of anthropomorphic masks to cover his ladies\u2019 faces.<\/p>\n![\"Fabelo](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Fabelo_05.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Fabelo](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Fabelo_04.jpg\")
Often dubbed the \u201cCuban Daumier,\u201d Fabelo\u2019s work is within the national Cuban collection (despite its hidden criticism of the way with which his culture and government treats both its women and citizens) but the Fabelo\u2019s Anatomy<\/em> exhibit features entirely new works that have never been seen up until now. And given the limitations of Cuba\u2019s resources\u2014finding paper media let alone engaging on social media is beyond difficult\u2014the array of pieces he offers to Long Beach are nothing short of impressive.<\/p>\n