Alexis Leyva Machado (Nueva Gerona, February 12, 1970), whose stage name is Kcho, is a Cuban sculptor, installationist, painter, printmaker, performance artist, curator, activist and politician. He is a deputy to the National Assembly of People’s Power. He began his studies in 1986 at the National School of Plastic Arts in the city of Havana, graduating in 1990.

His professional career began in 1990. Since then he has held more than 90 individual and 200 group exhibitions. In 1995, at age 25, Kcho became the youngest artist from Latin America to be part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA). Known for his large-scale installations, Kcho is also an excellent draftsman and creator of paintings, drawings and prints. He was the grand prize of the I Kwangju Biennale in South Korea in 1995, which launched him onto the international art scene. In Romerillo, a humble or socially complicated neighborhood of the Cubanacán popular council, located in the Playa municipality of the capital, Kcho has been developing a socially useful project for seven months, Kcho Estudio, with the aim of transforming the physical and mental spaces of its inhabitants. . A pretentious task that will only bear fruit through force of will and energy. But as he himself states “everything is possible by linking energies.”

It has an important collection of art, of the Cuban and international Avant-garde, of great heritage value and of utmost importance for the work of dissemination of the arts carried out by the Organic Museum in Havana and in other provinces of the country, since its proposal emanates from the universality of art and its opposite and coincident languages and proposals. The collection has a broad cultural panorama, coming from various countries and movements, which are shown throughout Cuba. The value of this collection and the global concept with which the Organic Museum enjoys, allows it to be easily inserted into any environment, beyond language and cultural barriers, as evidenced in works carried out in Haiti and Cuba; and in the interest shown by people, politicians, intellectuals and academics from all continents and countries who visit the place and show how from the Organic Museum it is possible to break down obstacles and positively transform people’s lives. Permanent and free workshops on plastic arts, film, engraving, and theater are taught, with wide participation of the public and students. They have the La Colmenita de Romerillo theater project, a theater for children, which involves the whole family. Its objective is to place art at the center of life, making it an essential element.

Awards

1990

•Award from the Hermanos Saíz Association, Municipal Hall of Plastic Arts, Isla de la Juventud.

1991

•Award from the National Hall of Artistic Teaching Professors, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, Havana.

1995

•UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts. Kwangji Biennale Grand Prix, South Korea.

1999

•Atelier Calder Residence, Saché, France.

2001

•Award for the Cuban submission to the IV Caribbean Biennial, Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.