Rachel Valdés Camejo

Rachel Valdés Camejo is considered one of the most prominent Cuban visual artists of her generation. She was born in Havana, Cuba, in November 1990. Her work mainly consists of large-scale installations, photography, and painting, the specialty from which she graduated in 2010 at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Havana, where she received a Gold Medal.

At 20 years old, she moved to Barcelona thanks to a scholarship, where she continued her studies without leaving her work behind. In 2012, she participated in the Eleventh Biennial of Havana as part of the Detrás del muro (Dedelmu) program created by Juan Delgado Calzadilla, which aimed to use the Havana waterfront as an exhibition platform to achieve interaction and participation from the community with the artistic work. On that occasion, Valdés exhibited "Felices para siempre," an installation that included a large panel of mirrors between the sidewalk and the wall, with the infinity of the sea as the only reflection in which passersby could see themselves.

In the same year, on the occasion of the presentation of the Havana Biennial in New York, Ben Rodríguez, director of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, took notice of her work, and the artist obtained a scholarship at the Vermont Studio Center, one of the most prominent artistic centers in the United States.

As part of the same program (Dedelmu), it returned to the biennials in 2015 and 2019 with the works Composición Infinita and Cubo Azul (XII Bienal de La Habana 2015) and Inmersión (XIII Bienal 2019). "Cubo Azul" was considered one of the most emblematic and captivating works of that edition. A huge blue crystal cube was installed on the Malecón. This installation, named Reality, aimed to present the different realities that make up human existence through the distortion of images and reflections from the cube.

As a curious fact, this cube was donated to the city by Valdés, displayed at the Castillo de la Punta, but Hurricane Irma destroyed it 2 years later.

In 2015, Rachel, who had previously had a career as a model, starred in the music video "Traidora," a song by Marc Anthony and Gente de Zona that has 372,555,620 views on YouTube, which brought her name to fame.

In March 2016, she exhibited the show "In Space" at the Center for the Development of Visual Arts in Havana, featuring expressionist works where the palette marked by black and gray tones aimed to showcase what the cosmos is for her.

In March 2016, Valdés helped Mick Jagger by serving as a translator for the Spanish phrases the musician directed to the Cuban audience at the legendary concert the Rolling Stones held in Havana. She said that Jagger was a charming person who loved Cuba and enjoyed our energy. "He was very eager to connect with the people," she added.

In 2016, Rachel received one of the most important recognitions and a boost to her career as a creator. As part of the Times Square Arts program aimed at the artistic animation of one of New York's most emblematic locations, her work The Beginning of the End was selected. At 46th Street in Manhattan, the artist installed a corridor made up of three mirrors that created visual effects, and combined with the neighboring buildings, it produced the effect of being inside a kaleidoscope. It was visited by more than 2 million people. Media outlets such as the New York Times, The Straits Times, Fox News, CBS, The Guardian, and The Telegraph reported on the news.

In 2020, Valdés, along with other Cuban artists as part of the Dedelmu project and in collaboration with curator Juan Delgado, presented two of his works at the prestigious Arco Fair in Madrid: the model of Cubo Azul and a photograph of Inmersión. That same year, in March, Vanity Fair magazine dedicated a feature to him.

Currently, as can be seen on her Instagram profile where she is very active and shares her projects, she is working on a large-format series about empty swimming pools in watercolor.

Rachel has a son from a relationship with a Catalan lawyer and is emotionally connected to the Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, with whom she shares her life in Madrid, where Valdés has his studio.