CORTÉS KOYAZO

From the mountains of Utuado, Puerto Rico, a green paradise, Luis Antonio Cortés Collazo did not have during his early years, so to speak, any direct artistic influence. None of his immediate family have been artist in any line. His innate attraction to the art emerged in his mind, his dream experiences, the contact of a somewhat bucolic region, the enthusiasm for the arrival of the itinerant art teacher that appeared monthly, a propensity to internalize the observed an intimate world crafted from his natural skill, first drawing and then painting during university studies (BA in Humanities, Fine Arts, (majoring in painting). His college art courses were offered by many well-respected Puerto Rican artists including: John Balossi, Félix Bonilla Norat, Rafael Colón Morales, Luis Hernández Cruz, Rafael Rivera Garcia (Sunny). Dedicated to teaching art in high school (Colegio San José de Río Piedras), then studies that lead to a master degree in information science (MLS), from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR).

Influenced by the trends of conceptual art in vogue during the years at university, but at the same time understanding and dealing with natural sense of freedom, he was not seduced by the prevailing "isms" of fashion and consequently introduces his work within postmodernism, understood as the borrowing of artistic movements and styles highly influential (Dadaism, surrealism, abstract expresionsimo, conceptualism) that is apparent in the corpus of his work. For this individual approach to his work, it is not easy to fit set him to particular artistic school, but its role within the wide range of postmodernism.

Koyazo has made his incursion into the literary world, a little delayed, so considered in terms of the publication, acknowledging in this way a natural crossing of the line between visual and literary world. In literature he was awarded the important national prize for short story from Puerto Rican Atheneum (2004).

His artistic work is supported by numerous solo and group exhibitions, most of these exhibitions in the university setting. He stands as a wonderful spokesman for the library class, allowing an active relationship between information-art-literature-communication.

Reviewed by:

Antonio del Castillo