To gaze into the eyes of one of Roger Ayala’s, portraits is an intimate experience. 
 

His figures, mostly female, exude innocence, tenderness and calm. They possess a vulnerability and melancholy that the Western world is afraid of expressing. 
 

The faces and bodies are light and dark, happy and sad. It’s this duality that gives the faces reflective expressions. Ayala captures the viewer in a dialogue that questions who and what are human beings. 
 

Though he lives in Cuba, he breaks the boundaries of laws, embargoes and social rules to bring to the canvas something purely human.  Ayala claims that there is an external identity that has been built-up by outside expectations. However people are more than that. Each person has some intrinsic qualities and characteristics that need to be realized.