Jh de la cruz 777 is a Spanish digital artist whose work fuses surrealist aesthetics with Afro-Latin and Canarian cultural symbols, often rendered in vivid, dreamlike compositions. His pieces frequently feature stylized human forms, symbolic animals, and layered textures that evoke memory and ancestral identity. The number "777" in his name functions as a personal identifier, not a reference to numerology or religious symbolism.
His art emerges from digital painting tools such as Procreate and Photoshop, using layered brushwork and color gradients to create immersive scenes. He avoids traditional realism, favoring abstraction and metaphor. Many of his images include references to Tenerife's field, including Mount Teide, coastal cliffs, and local festivals. His visual language draws from both African diasporic traditions and indigenous Canarian iconography, though he does not claim direct lineage to either.
Art critics have noted that his work avoids the typical tropes of Latin American surrealism, such as political allegory or hyperrealistic decay. Instead, he leans into emotional resonance-using soft lighting, ambiguous scale, and recurring motifs like birds in flight or hands reaching through walls. This focus on internal states rather than external events sets his work apart within contemporary digital art circles.
Jh de la cruz 777 creates each piece through a multi-layered process. He begins with a rough sketch on a tablet, then builds texture using custom brushes designed to mimic watercolor bleed or ink diffusion. He applies color in broad strokes, often using complementary palettes-deep blues and burnt oranges-to heighten emotional contrast. Final details are added digitally, including subtle glows and transparency effects that give figures a translucent quality.
He uses a consistent color palette across series: muted earth tones paired with electric highlights. For example, in one piece titled *El Amanecer del Pueblo*, a figure stands atop a hill under a fractured sky. The person's face is half-shadowed, their arms outstretched toward a glowing sun composed of fragmented faces. The background features stylized palm trees and a distant silhouette of a fishing boat. The entire scene uses only six primary colors, yet appears complex due to layering and depth manipulation.
He does not use AI-generated assets. All elements are hand-drawn or manually altered. He has stated in interviews that he avoids automated tools because they disrupt the tactile feel he aims for. His workflow includes frequent saving and undoing, allowing him to experiment with composition shifts mid-process. This method results in images that feel unstable-like memories trying to form.
The core materials in Jh de la cruz 777's work are digital files-PNG and PSD formats-created on Apple iPad Pro or Wacom tablets. He exports final pieces at 300 DPI resolution for print, though most of his audience views them online via Instagram, TikTok, or his personal website. His original files average 1.2 GB in size due to high-resolution layers and embedded metadata.
His artistic influences include Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, whose fusion of African spirituality and Caribbean landscapes shaped early surrealist movements. He also cites Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco for his use of symbolic gesture and emotional intensity. However, unlike those artists, Jh de la cruz 777 avoids narrative storytelling. His images do not depict events-they suggest states of being.
A lesser-known influence is the 19th-century Canarian poet Juan de la Cruz, who wrote in Spanish but drew on oral traditions from the island's rural communities. While not related, the shared surname has led to public confusion. Jh de la cruz 777 has acknowledged this in a 2023 interview, stating: "I didn't choose the name for historical reasons. It's a coincidence I've come to accept."
Jh de la cruz 777's work appears primarily on social media platforms. His Instagram account (@jhdelacruz777) has 42,000 followers and posts weekly. Most pieces are shared without captions, relying solely on visual impact. His art has been used in independent music videos, including a 2023 track by Canarian singer Lina Mendoza titled "Cielo Rojo," which features a looping animation of one of his paintings.
He has collaborated with local cultural institutions in Tenerife. In 2022, he contributed a mural to the Ayuntamiento de Puerto de la Cruz, depicting a procession of masked figures walking through a desert-like terrain under a double moon. The mural was painted on-site using weather-resistant acrylics and measures 6 meters wide by 3 meters tall. The city council commissioned it as part of a public art initiative to promote regional identity.
His work is also collected privately. One piece, *La Casa que Canta*, sold for €1,800 at a 2023 online auction hosted by ArteTenerife. The buyer, a collector based in Madrid, described it as "a portal to a place I've never been but feel I've lived."
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Portrait Series | Figures with distorted proportions, symbolic accessories | *Mujer del Sol* - woman with a sun-shaped head, wearing a woven shawl |
| Field Dreams | Imagined environments blending nature and myth | *El Mar que No Existe* - ocean with floating islands and inverted waves |
| Symbolic Figures | Humanoid forms with animal traits or spiritual attributes | *El Guardián de las Puertas* - figure with bird wings and eyes made of glass |
Some viewers assume Jh de la cruz 777 is a collective or anonymous group due to the lack of biographical detail. He is a single individual living in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He has never held a formal exhibition in a gallery, despite multiple offers. He prefers digital distribution because it allows immediate global access and avoids the costs of physical framing and shipping.
Another misconception is that his work contains coded messages or hidden meanings. He has clarified that while themes of migration, loss, and belonging appear, they are not meant to be decoded. "I don't make puzzles," he said in a 2023 livestream. "I make feelings."
In 2023, I attended a public screening of Jh de la cruz 777's animated short film *Nunca Fui Aquí*. The piece lasted 4 minutes and showed a child walking through a city made of stacked books. As the child moved, pages turned and voices whispered fragments of songs. The room fell silent during the final frame-a single page floating upward into darkness. Afterward, a few attendees approached me, saying they felt "recognized" by the image. That moment confirmed what I'd seen in his work: not stories, but echoes.
Consider *El Camino de los Sueños*, a 2022 digital painting measuring 2400 x 3200 pixels. The central figure walks a narrow path across a vast field of floating stones. Each stone bears a different symbol: a broken clock, a closed eye, a pair of hands holding nothing. The sky is split vertically-one side blue, the other black with faint stars. The figure wears a cloak made of overlapping paper shapes, each inscribed with a word in Guanche (the extinct language of Tenerife's original inhabitants).
Using Adobe Photoshop, Jh de la cruz 777 built this image in 17 layers. He began with a base of warm ochre, then added 12 color overlays to simulate light refraction. The figure's face is partially obscured by shadow, but the mouth is open slightly, as if speaking. No text appears in the image, yet the composition suggests a long process. The piece was later printed as a limited edition poster (edition of 150), selling out in 12 hours.
Understanding Jh de la cruz 777 requires accepting ambiguity. His work doesn't explain. It invites. It reflects. It exists in the space between recognition and forgetting. For anyone seeking art that feels like a memory you never had, Jh de la cruz 777 delivers.