Selection panels are asked to judge whether an artist can manage every phase of design, engineering, fabrication and installation — and whether the finished work can be maintained for decades. This page sets out how that is done, and the record behind it.
Permanent and sited work, realised for civic, institutional and developer clients.
Work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Tampa Museum of Art, and is also represented at the Venice Biennale.
Formal training at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, extended through international residencies in bronze and plaster casting, stone carving, fibreglass and printmaking. Delivered public work to date spans painted fibreglass, cast bronze, marble and ceramic tile.
Material is chosen for the site and its climate rather than by preference. On a coastal site the governing stresses are chloride exposure, ultraviolet radiation and heat, prolonged wetting, storm and wind loading, and public contact — and each of those narrows the field before aesthetics enter the conversation.
A typical permanent exterior commission runs for roughly 14 months from notice to proceed to the first payment of 50%, in 6 phases, with written approval gates between them.
Risk is managed explicitly. Additional float sits in the approvals phase, because authority review is the least controllable element of any programme. Installation is scheduled outside peak hurricane months where the site demands it. Long-lead material is ordered the moment fabrication is approved. Throughout, there is a single point of accountability: the artist directs design and fabrication, and is present for factory acceptance and for installation.
Every proposal is accompanied by a maintenance and protection plan written for the specific site, setting a minimum design service life of twenty-five years. As an illustration, the plan prepared for the City of Fort Pierce — an unsheltered civic site on Florida's Treasure Coast — specifies:
Alternatives are set out with their trade-offs rather than presented as a single option — marine-grade aluminium with a PVDF finish, or silicon bronze, each with its own maintenance burden — so that the commissioner can weigh cost, appearance and upkeep with the facts in front of them.
A commission is not finished at the dedication. Each project concludes with an as-built maintenance manual containing final material and coating specifications, product data sheets and warranties, fabricator and engineer contacts, cleaning procedures and a full photographic record of the completed work.
The maintenance regime is written as a schedule with responsibility assigned, so the commissioner knows exactly what falls to their grounds team and what does not: a quarterly fresh-water rinse and twice-yearly wash with pH-neutral detergent by site staff; an annual documented condition inspection with the artist available to advise; reapplication of the sacrificial anti-graffiti coating on a three-year cycle by a qualified contractor; and a comprehensive condition survey every five to seven years.
Storm and vandalism protocols are set out in advance — inspection and photographic record after any named storm, prompt graffiti removal using only the approved products, and reinstatement of the sacrificial coating after each event. Significant repair or refinishing is carried out in consultation with the artist, consistent with the artist's moral rights. The artist remains available to advise on conservation, repair and any future relocation of the work.
A site-specific Maintenance and Protection Plan and a phased Project Timeline can be provided at qualifications stage for any opportunity under consideration. Both are prepared for the individual site rather than adapted from a template.
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