KCHO

Alexis Leiva Machado, known as KCHO, was born in 1970 in Nueva Gerona, Isla de la Juventud, Cuba, in a humble family environment. He graduated in 1986 from the Elementary School of Art in his hometown and continued his education at the National Art School in Havana, completing it in 1990 and starting his professional career. Since then, he has participated in more than 100 solo exhibitions and over two hundred group exhibitions, excelling as a draftsman, sculptor, painter, and installer.

KCHO has been awarded significant prizes, such as the Grand Prize of the 1st Gwangju Biennale in South Korea and the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts in 1995. In Cuba, he has received the Distinction for National Culture (1998) and the Diploma of Artistic Merit from the Superior Institute of Art (2001). At the age of 25, he became the second Latin American artist to become part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), being the first to achieve this at that age, succeeding Wifredo Lam.

KCHO's works have found a place in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions such as the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofia National Art Center Museum in Madrid, the International Contemporary Art Center in Montreal, the Pompidou Center in Paris, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Vatican in Rome, among others.

Represented by renowned galleries such as Barbara Gladstone Gallery, Marlborough Gallery, and Galería Joan Prats, etc. KCHO has participated in important biennials such as Venice, Havana, and the End of the World. He exhibited three times at the Vatican's Palace of the Chancellery, establishing himself as the Cuban artist with the strongest ties to the Holy See. His work "Milagro," known as the "Christ of the Mediterranean," was gifted to Pope Francis in 2015.

KCHO has excelled not only as an artist but also as an artivist. In 2008, he founded the Martha Machado Artistic Brigade, which has provided assistance after natural disasters in Cuba and Haiti, building schools and houses, and providing economic and psychological support. In 2010, as an artist and curator, he led the exhibition "Punto de encuentro" at the Tenth Havana Biennial, bringing together artists who see art not only as an aesthetic matter but as a weapon of transformation, exchange, and negotiation. Among them were artists such as Cai Guo-Quian, Shirin Neshat, Tatsuo Miyajima, the AES+F collective, among others.

In 2012, he initiated the transformation and recovery of Romerillo, a marginalized neighborhood in Havana, leading to the establishment of the KCHO Romerillo Art Laboratory in 2014. He presented the Organic Museum Romerillo (MOR) at the 12th Havana Biennial in 2015, turning the neighborhood into a community exhibition space. The MOR, a non-profit entity, offered cultural services and integrated with the Martha Machado Brigade, demonstrating KCHO's creative vision in democratizing culture and improving people's well-being.

The Social Utility Community Project in Romerillo (MOR) provided services such as video rooms, libraries, galleries, navigation rooms, plastic arts workshops, photography, and theater, being the first free internet access point on the island. This provided significant opportunities at a time when internet access in Cuba was limited. A year later, Google opened its first technological center in Cuba at the Organic Museum (GOOGLE + KCHO.MOR), maintaining free internet access sponsored by KCHO, but this time with higher speed. This unique space fused art and technology, serving as a convergence point for KCHO's creations and Google's technological innovations.