Rafael Trelles: Caliban

Known for his dreamlike, magico-mythical paintings, Trelles creates richly layered worlds in which light, shadow, flora and fauna converge. At the centre of this exhibition is Caliban, the original inhabitant of the island in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, whose land and freedom are seized by the exiled Duke Prospero. Trelles radically reverses Shakespeare’s perspective, presenting Caliban not as a ‘savage’ subject to be controlled, but as a figure of dignity, resilience and agency. Drawing on the writings of Cuban intellectual Roberto Fernández Retamar, Trelles explores the connections between ‘Caliban’, ‘cannibal’ and ‘Caribe’, linking the character to the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. This historical and linguistic resonance becomes deeply personal for the artist, who states: “In this precise sense, I am Caliban.” Across these ethereal paintings, Caliban exists in profound harmony with his environment, while Prospero represents an external, objectifying force that seeks to classify and control. Trelles instead imagines nature as a space of symbiosis and belonging. Caliban connects the colonial history of the Caribbean with contemporary questions of identity, migration, racism and cultural displacement, offering a poetic meditation on land, memory and the right to define one’s own story.