Victor Huerta Batista - Autorretrato en el zapato milagroso

This painting is a reimagining of one of Victor Huerta Batista - Autorretrato en el zapato milagroso classic masterworks from the early 2000s, a work that was quickly acquired by a fortunate collector. The present piece is a spectacular achievement, with a level of detail and refinement that, in our view, surpasses the original painting that inspired it. Huerta is both a technical genius and a consummate master of his craft—an increasingly rare convergence among contemporary artists.

From the artist:

“Once, I saw a sentence written on a ticket booth: ‘Every man, at least once in his life, has to risk everything to succeed or choose to sit back and watch how other people’s success happens.’ That idea has inspired much of my work. With the same confidence a child has at birth—unconcerned with destiny—life unfolds. What matters most is the journey: to learn, to grow, to create, and to leave the world better than you found it, without pretending to be better than anyone else, while always striving to be better than you were yesterday.”

Description:

30 x 40 inches (75 x 100 cm)

2025

Oil on canvas

We recently received this painting, and it reaffirms what has long been evident in his work: Victor Huerta Batista is a truly exceptional artist and a singular mind. One of the most compelling aspects of great surrealism is its reliance on symbology, iconography, and an expansive imaginative capacity—qualities that are increasingly rare today. Victor possesses these in abundance. And he is quite a poet. At times it feels like his mind is truly unleashed.

We regard him as both a technical master and a conceptual genius, a combination that is essential to achieving work of this caliber. It is perhaps for this very reason that so few artists successfully operate within the surrealist tradition today. Many demonstrate extraordinary technical ability but lack the imaginative depth to transcend craftsmanship; others possess powerful conceptual vision but lack the technical discipline to fully realize it.  Victor is distinguished by the fact that he commands both. Which makes him relatively free of limitation with regard to his paintings. 

We have works from Victor dating back nearly 25 years, from the period when we first discovered him. Even then, his conceptual intelligence was unmistakable, though he was still refining his technical execution. Today, he has reached a level of maturity where both elements—conceptual depth and technical mastery—are fully and confidently realized. The reaction his work elicits when viewed in the gallery is remarkable. There is an immediate sense of fascination and sustained engagement—an unmistakable response to work that operates on both an intellectual and visceral level.

From Victor Huerta Batista - January 8th, 2025 

I believe that the work of every artist who is authentic and transcendent within the history of art shares a fundamental characteristic: the work is inseparable from lived experience. Each carries a story that must be told. In my own practice, this reflection of personal life is present throughout much of my work.

I was born and have lived in a country that constantly forced my dreams to exist elsewhere in order to be realized. My story mirrors that of my hometown, Camagüey— a place defined by longing, resilience, and imagination shaped by necessity. Those who are inspired, and capable, will create works that endure—works that reflect the totality of their existence.

The clouds that once symbolized winds on old navigation charts have become, in my work, forces that push forward, redirect, and encourage forward movement and the realization of dreams. They are agents of transformation, revealing hidden plans. On another more diabolical level, they can embody the cyclones that return each season, threatening to devastate everything in their path. I come from a place where nothing—without exception—is ever discarded once broken. Everything is reused, reimagined, and set in motion again. We were forced to reinvent ourselves in order to survive. 

I collect muses and fairies as fuel for a dreamer—one who seeks to entertain those willing to explore alternate realities. A better life. A different life. A life with more possibilities.

The real world is one thing; the world that exists in my mind has no clear boundaries. Past, present, and future collapse into a single narrative. This is how I tell my story. Every element carries meaning. Nothing is accidental. Together, they form a scene where everything matters. When a work is finished, I become merely a spectator—attempting, like anyone else, to decipher my own impulses, thoughts, and desires.

These are new works inspired by some of the masterworks he created nearly 20 years ago, that immediately sold, at that time. These are more fully realized, with absolutely stunning detail. 
And they are larger, at 40 x 30", or 100 x 75cm. Acrylic on canvas. These new works will not last long. 

We will pay domestic shipping, if shipped rolled in a secure tube. 
Otherwise, we can ship the work stretched, for our cost of $200 to pack and ship. If shipped internationally, it will be shipped rolled in a secure tube.

Permanent Collections:

University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona

Extremadura Museum of Art, Extremadura, Spain

Writing in Tucson Weekly, critic Margaret Regan described Huerta’s imagery as wild, imaginative, and resistant to single interpretation. His paintings are populated by hybrid creatures, collapsing figures, symbolic machines, and theatrical scenes that feel erotic, humorous, unsettling, and poetic all at once. Works such as Caerse de Habana (2002) and Feliz Cumpleaños (2003) demonstrate his ability to balance visual excess with precise control.

Huerta practices what Cubans call lo real maravilloso (“the marvelous real”), a counterpart to Latin American magical realism. He places recognizable figures, landscapes, and architecture into irrational or impossible spaces, playing with shifts in scale and perspective to create dreamlike narratives.

His surfaces are richly layered, featuring subtle glazes, controlled drips, and a restrained Old World palette of browns, ambers, golds, and muted blues. Cuban landscapes often emerge as atmospheric backdrops—soft palm trees, glowing rooftops, shimmering coastal waters, and chalky sunset skies.

Huerta’s influences range from Leonardo da Vinci’s mechanical drawings to the fantastical visions of Hieronymus Bosch and the unrestrained imagination of Francisco Goya. These connections were underscored when his work was exhibited alongside Goya’s Los Disparates at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. As curator Lisa Fischman observed, “His imagination is unloosed. He’s an artist willing to see where that goes—a precedent Goya himself set.”

Correspondence:

In Relation to Goya: Paintings by Victor Huerta Batista

Goya’s Mastery in Prints: Los Disparates

University of Arizona Museum of Art, through September 30, 2007

For more information, call (323) 744-7550 or visit the gallery’s Artnet page:

http://www.artnet.com/artists/victor-huerta-batista/