Gainza’s oil paintings, including Camino a la Luz, infuse a street sense with lyricism and mystery…

Lennie Bennett, St PetersburgTimes Art Critic
October 21, 2010
The Mysteries of Havana, are works inspired by the book, with the same acclaimed name of Cuban writer Zoe Valdes. Gaínza takes from this book, references of personalities like La China, Yarini or La Marquesa del Tencent, side streets as La Esquina de Teja and El Paseo del Prado (the Stroll of Prado), and folktales  as Matías Perez and transforms them into poetic images. Gaínza uses the tertiary colors, play of light and shades, as well as the half point arc, cobblestones, the guardavesinos (window shutters) , and the bend of the side streets, to obtain the mystery that is inferred in Zoe Valdes’book. This exhibit was inaugurated May 6^th of this year at the gallery Ars Atelier, 84, rue Quincampoix, Paris, «Les mystères de La Havane» this book was published originally in French by Calmann-Lévy, 2002 and later in Spanish by Planeta, 2004.