La paloma y yo [The Dove and I]

A Santeria priest, painter, sculptor, and performance artist, Manuel Mendive has developed a distinctive iconographic language by fusing imagery drawn from Afro-Cuban religious belief systems with Western painterly styles and techniques. La paloma y yo, a hybrid between painting and sculpture, is incised and painted upon a hollowed palm tree trunk. Here, Mendive depicts himself as a pared-down outline, covered with the trademark polka-dots that he paints upon his body for his performance art. His mouth is open, as if he is in conversation with the dove perched upon his shoulder. Look closer, and you will find a human head sprouting from one of the dove’s wings—a shape that echoes the face of his stone sculpture Rostro, also in the collection of the Blanton.