Manuel Mendive is an internationally acclaimed Cuban painter, sculptor, and performance artist, born in Cuba in 1944. Considered one of the most influential living artists in Latin America and the Caribbean, Mendive’s work is deeply rooted in the African diaspora, and most often depicts figures from Afro-Cuban traditions, such as Yoruba gods and goddesses, mythical creatures from folklore, as well as historical and natural scenes.

In 2010, Mendive created Energy of the Sea, a tour de force of its creator’s unique magical realism and multidisciplinary approach. The work consists of an acrylic-painted canvas, stretched in an iron frame made by Mendive himself. The result is a powerful synthesis of painting and sculpture, a shrine in the language of international contemporary art. Energy of the Sea encapsulates many of the artist’s thematic hallmarks – Cuban history, spirituality, harmony with nature, and the intersection of cultures.

Energy of the Sea is an artwork dedicated to Oshun, the goddess in the Yoruba religion associated with water, purity, fertility and love. Her symbols are the peacock, the vulture, flowing waters, and marine life, icons of which appear throughout the canvas and on the surrounding sculpted iron frame.

Oshun is an important figure in Santeria, a dominant subject of the artist’s work for decades. Santeria is a belief system which arose through a process of syncretism between the Yoruba religion brought to the new world by enslaved West Africans, and the Catholic form of Christianity practiced by the colonial Spanish. In the tradition of Santeria, Oshun is often syncretized with the Patron Saint of Cuba, La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Both figures are said to appear as a vision in yellow, often on the open waters.

La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, also known as Our Lady of Charity, is the Patron Saint of Cuba and holds powerful significance in the country’s culture and history. According to legend, in 1612, three young men in a rowboat -- a European, an African, and a Native, who represented the ethnic components of Cuba- - (collectively known as Los Tres Juanes or The Three Juans), were swept off course by a powerful storm off the coast of the island. Adrift, they prayed for the protection of the Virgin Mary. A statue of Our Lady of Charity appeared on the water and guided the three Juans back to the island. Our Lady of Charity has become a prominent historical, cultural, and devotional figure across centuries. In Energy of the Sea, Mendive combines both traditions and visions.

In the upper canvas of Energy of the Sea, the three Juans are in a rowboat, joined by a protective spirit in blue. Before them, on the water, is a spirit in yellow, signifying both Oshun and Our Lady of Charity.

The canvas and its iron frame sculpture are populated with spirits and believers, as well as animals and Mendive’s distinct human-animal hybrids, which symbolize ambiguity and interconnectedness.

Notably, the canvas and sculpture are adorned with cowrie shells. In Afro-Cuban religious tradition, these shells are believed to bring good luck and to protect the spirit of the wearer. Cowries also play a role in consultas or divination, through which a Babalawo or priest communes with the Orishas (spirits) by tossing consecrated cowries and interpreting their orientation.

Energy of the Sea is a distinguished, museum-quality artwork with a sterling trajectory. The work was exhibited at the Museo José Luis Cuevas, Mexico City, in 2010 as part of the one-person show, La Luz y Las Tinieblas, Manuel Mendive, and appears illustrated on page 52 of the corresponding catalog. It was later exhibited in the acclaimed solo exhibition Things That Cannot Be Seen Any Other Way: The Art of Manuel Mendive at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles, California, from April- October, 2013. Later, it was exhibited in a third solo exhibition, Things That Cannot Be Seen Any Other Way: The Art of Manuel Mendive, at The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida, from November 16, 2013- January 26, 2014, listed in the exhibition catalog on page 55.

The work appears illustrated on page 195 of the definitive book on the artist, Mendive, Collage Ediciones, Selvi Artes Gráficas, Valencia, Spain, 2015, page 195, and also illustrated in the article Si Dios y Elegguá Quieren, Manuel Mendive, Jorge Mata, Diario de Cuba, Madrid, Spain, May 18, 2019. Energy of the Sea is illustrated in the catalog IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS, Volume Seventeen, Cernuda Arte, 2019, on page 101. The work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the artist, dated 2010.

Manuel Mendive’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, the Bronx Museum, the California African American Museum, the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and the Venice Biennale. In Winter of 2022-23, Manuel Mendive’s work was the subject of the one-person exhibition, Life is Beautiful, at the Vatican Palace, Pallazzo della Cancellería. Life is Beautiful presented Yoruba and Santerían history in the deeply Catholic Vasari room of the Palace in the spirit of ecumenism, echoing Mendive’s goal of universalism through art.

Mendive has also been the recipient of numerous awards -- he was awarded with the Adam Montparnasse prize for his painting exhibition at the Salon de Mai in Paris in 1968; the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres from the Minister of Culture of the French Republic in 1994; with the National Prize for Plastic Arts, Cuba, 2001; and the UNESCO Medal of the Five Continents Award in 2009, among other distinctions. The artist lives and works in Cuba.