José Gislero (b. 1960, Switzerland) is a contemporary painter whose work explores the intersection of memory, spirituality, vulnerability, and human resilience. His artistic journey follows an unconventional path. Trained as an engineer, he spent more than twenty years working internationally across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Exposure to widely different cultures and social realities profoundly shaped his understanding of human experience and continues to inform his artistic vision.

In 2008, Gislero made the decision to leave corporate life and relocate to Havana, Cuba, where he enrolled at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro". Following his studies, he spent several years working as a craftsman restoring colonial architecture in Havana's historic center. This close engagement with material, history, and cultural heritage influenced the development of a visual language rooted in both physical and symbolic reconstruction.

Since 2017 he has worked as a full-time artist. His paintings combine elements of contemporary symbolic realism, figurative painting, and spiritual iconography. Throughout his work, human figures emerge from darkness, luminous particles, and fragmented spaces that evoke memory, loss, transcendence, and renewal.

Gislero's artistic development traces a movement from contemplative and spiritual imagery toward an increasingly direct engagement with lived human experience. While earlier works explored inner states through cosmic and symbolic motifs, more recent series such as Gaza and Shadows confront themes of displacement, grief, maternal protection, and collective suffering. Rather than depicting tragedy itself, his paintings focus on dignity, compassion, and the persistence of hope in times of crisis.

Drawing on the visual language of sacred painting while remaining firmly grounded in contemporary realities, Gislero creates images that invite reflection on the shared condition of human vulnerability. His work seeks to transform personal and collective memory into spaces of empathy, contemplation, and dialogue.

After more than fifteen years in Cuba, he relocated to Andalucía, Spain, where he currently lives and works.