The main faces of salsa at an exhibition in Miami

Miami, July 23.- The Colombian artist Dahyana Portilla has just opened an exhibition in Miami with the most famous faces of salsa, works "sponsored" by people and music companies that we can also see on the Digital Spotify music platform

The sponsors, all the salsa lovers, have helped her "with materials or even transportation" and in this way the work does not become not just the artist, but also "the community," Portilla says in a statement to Efe.

More than a dozen large paintings are hanging from this Friday on the walls of the WDNA Jazz Gallery in Coral Gables with the mostly smiling faces of Héctor Lavoe, Cheo Feliciano, Robert Roena, Rey Barreto, Rubén Blades, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Jhonny Pacheco and Jhonny Ventura, among others.

The author, who signs his works under the name of Philo and is part of the job of an artist, badured Efe today that "I go through evenings, I know that" I miss him a lot but I have tried to start with the older, predecessors, "said Portilla about his work, framed in the personal project My Latin Color, which began without wanting to" The Salsa faces "to complete 20 giant pieces, although not all are now on display.

"My interest in tropical music was cultivated while I was painting the painting of Arsenio Rodríguez (also known as El Cieguito Maravilloso) for the trilogy covers" Arsenio Rodríguez, the prophet of Afro music -cubaine ", writer Jairo Grijalba Ruiz in 2015," says Portilla

"It's at this point that I've discovered the incredible story of tropical music." develop the project My Latin color, "he adds

Sometimes, as in the case of El Cieguito Maravilloso, a photograph is the starting point of portraits of Portilla.

or to give one's own perspective and give free rein to the feelings and emotions that these characters convey, using (in addition) videos and gestures combined, "says Portilla

When asked about her favorite face, she no doubt about it. "Roberto Roena, although everyone gave When I painted (Eddy) Palmieri I dreamed that he was playing my piano (…) I am a frustrated pianist but this night I played with his hands ", he remembers

"Everyone is great, everyone brings me. I feel his anger, his fears, his joy, but Roberto Roena was strange, special, I could say that he painted himself, even if you do not believe me. I painted it in four hours, while others can take me days or two months, like the case of Jhonny Pacheco, "confesses the young Colombian

Portilla, who has been living for some years in South Florida says that there are things that Google does not know and that it has managed to investigate to conclude its work on the Dominican Pacheco, creator in 1968 of the Fania Orchestra All Stars.

"Our Mission", says the artist with a plural modesty, "Promote empathy, entertainment, curiosity, critical thinking, conversation and inclusion, by activating the # 39 space to share our pbadion for Latin musical culture locally and globally.

Portilla made the platform for digital music Spotify include his paintings to present the music of famous salsa artists.

The Colombian is promoted on the Internet through his page with the name of my Latin color and managed to get people from different countries to sponsor a specific job.

"This concept has been successful.We already have twenty or so works sponsored by large and small international companies or individuals, and also for the impact it has caused on the different ways that new generations around the world connect and with their cultural roots, "notes Portilla.

His paintings are large because" they are great. Grand and majestic. It should make way for the kind of music that makes people happy, dance, who unites the continents, which reflects the joy of a Latino. They deserve it, "he says.

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