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Upon entering the Herbert T. Williams Gallery, striking blue whirlpools and luminous yellows glow from the walls. Haunting musical compositions echo throughout the room.

“My painting is the visual part of this work, and the music is the soundscape of the painting,” local composer and painter Abisay Puentes said.

Puentes blends poetry, art and music in “Emptiness,” his exhibit at the Community Folk Art Center. Open from Sept. 8 to Dec. 15, the multimedia exhibit has 25 pieces. The exhibit also includes a video component, in which Puentes’ music compositions play in the background as the paintings move on the wall.

The artwork included in “Emptiness” spans over a decade. Puentes said these paintings are part of a larger narrative he’s been building throughout his career. His Spanish poetry collection titled “the Parable” inspired the paintings. The collection arose from his love for theology and philosophy, as well as his lived experiences and challenges as a Cuban immigrant.

A pivotal piece in the exhibit is “Lamento, No. 2,” which is a diptych of a machine city and a trapped man. The exhibit explores themes like losing one’s sense of reality and sense of self, as well as a contrast between helplessness and power. When titling the exhibit “Emptiness,” Puentes said he was thinking about emptiness symbolically.

“You can be full of people around you, full of material, full of things, but that doesn’t mean you are full,” Puentes said.

The narrative of Puentes’ exhibit is about a sorrowful man who’s thinking about the world he lives in. The man is burdened by a question many humans wonder, but don’t ask, Puentes said. When seeking the answer, the man is connected to a machine and breathes in perfume.

The fragrance makes him forget his question and lose his sense of reality, which is depicted in the “BRUMAS” series of paintings. When the man comes back to reality, he realizes he’s been walking around a structure in the ocean for 10,000 years, which is pictured in the “Vértigo” series.

At an artist talk on Oct. 23, Dr. Tanisha Jackson – CFAC’s executive director and head curator – led a discussion with Puentes about topics like his unique color palette and the narrative behind the exhibit. Puentes did a live painting demonstration, where he drew over a painting.

He revealed that the drawing depicted the music composition software he uses to visually convey his interpretation of the music. Jackson said it’s not often the public gets a glimpse into an artist’s process. The painting demonstration was an addition that will help to further his message, she said.

“Abisay Puentes’ exhibit ‘Emptiness’ is something that is timeless and also just aesthetically beautiful,” Jackson said.

Jackson said Puentes’ art has universal, humanistic themes that audiences can relate to, enabling multiple communities to join in conversations with the artist. She was drawn to Puentes’ artwork because of its emotive quality.

Puentes’ journey to becoming a multimedia artist started when he was young. He longed to paint, but his mother wanted him to be a pianist. Puentes said he loves the piano, but disliked taking lessons as a child. At around 12 years old, he told his mother he was done with piano lessons.

When Puentes was a teenager, a professor encouraged him to combine his knowledge in music, art and poetry. That was an overwhelming task for him, he said. A few years later, Puentes decided he could compose his own music for his paintings instead of waiting for others to do it for him.

Puentes was born and raised in Havana, Cuba. Living in a communist country under a dictatorship, his art was repressed by the government, Puentes said.

His second exhibit in Cuba was taken off the walls of a gallery in the late 1990s because the government thought it wasn’t aligned with their ideology. Puentes’ art is simply a way for him to express himself, he said.

“I never tried to make something like that,” Puentes said. “Everything I’m trying to show is through the filter of theology and philosophy.”

This experience led Puentes to shift to creating more symbolic art. Puentes values evoking emotion through his art and prefers for viewers to come to their own interpretation of the story.

“Many people want to understand,” Puentes says. “The feeling is more important.”

Puentes moved to the United States in 2010. In his 16 years of living in the U.S., he’s made more art than he did in Cuba due to more freedom and having easier access to resources.

All the paintings in “Emptiness” were made in the U.S. Despite this, Puentes said moving to a new country does come with challenges. He said he had to learn a different language and culture to achieve his goals.

Teresita Paniagua, the executive director of the Office of Cultural Engagement for the Hispanic Community at Syracuse University, has been a friend of Puentes for many years. Paniagua said Puentes has remained faithful to his vision and art despite challenging situations. Aside from his artistic talent, she admires his profound spirituality.

“He is often reflecting on very difficult aspects of our humanity, our duality between spirit and body, our lower nature and our struggles,” Paniagua said.

Puentes’ older work that she saw used to be very colorless; very black and white. His current work is “an explosion of color,” she said.

Puentes said today’s era in the artistic world is “the heaven of art” with all of the technology and advancements we have now. Artists can explore whatever they want, he said.

“Everybody has their own story,” Puentes said. “Tell your story with a very high level of beauty, as high as you can, and don’t worry what people think. Do whatever you want in a beautiful way and express yourself.”

Published on October 27, 2025 at 9:21 pm