Zeus (From the Series "Land of Relics")

Oil on Canvas. Unframed 32" x 32" / 80cm x 80cm

by Cuban artist Maikel Benítez

In this companion work series Zeus, Maikel Benítez deepens his poetic dialogue between classical antiquity and the living fabric of La Habana. A Havana window—weathered, ornate, and bearing the faint glow of past glory—merges seamlessly with the swirling, marble-like hair of the sculpted god of thunder and sky. In this fusion, Benítez suggests both a hope for the city’s rebirth and a declaration that Havana possesses the same gravitas and enigmatic beauty as the ruins of forgotten empires.

The dark surrounding field heightens this impression: the window floats as a suspended relic, softly illuminated within an endless void.

The overall feeling is one of mystical introspection. The work carries a hushed reverence, as though the viewer has stumbled upon a hidden portal between eras. By blending the divine with the domestic, Benítez reveals a Havana that is at once vulnerable and monumental—a city whose crumbling surfaces echo Olympus and Rome, and whose everyday details hold the enduring soul of a civilization shaped by time rather than diminished by it.