Yubi Kirindongo

Yubi Kirindongo (1946, Curaçao)

Yubi is a self-taught painter. He gradually discovered that he could use art as a way to express his own liberation and development. Back in Curaçao, he evolved into one of the island’s best known and most socially engaged artists. He devotes himself to effecting social change and eliciting a greater cultural contribution from the black community. His frustration over the underestimation of his Afro-Caribbean brothers and sisters – and the consequent denial of their culture – and his anger over the pollution and ecological destruction of his beloved island, are sources of inspiration for his growth as an artist.

Yubi Kirindongo uses materials that others would have thrown away. Kirindongo reuses debris to make sculptures. He scavenges the island, collecting rubbish and taking it home to a place – house, studio, and sculpture garden – that he has built with his own hands. He has an inexhaustible talent for combining lost-and-found objects and turning them into art. Discarded car bumpers recycled to form sculptural works brought him international fame. The charming and recalcitrant artist, with an impressive and multifaceted oeuvre, is now a cultural icon of Curaçao. If you know anything at all about contemporary Caribbean art, there’s no getting around Yubi. Yubi Kirindongo has received a number of international awards for his work.

More information about the artist:http://curacao-art.com/artists/yubi-kirindongo/