gustavo acosta
One of the most interesting painters in his generation Acosta won several important awards in Cuba during the decade of the 80s and has participated in the Havana, Chile and Sao Paolo Biennials. He established himself in Mexico in 1991 along with the significant number of Cuban artists who left their home country at that time and participated in numerous collective shows such as The Prodigious Decade at The Chopo University Museum (1992). He currently resides in Miami and has maintained a constant and growing presence in the panorama of Latin American plastic arts in America and in Europe.
josé bedia
Miami based internationally renowned Cuban artist José Bedia is a defender of simple ways of life, nature and spirituality. His profuse use of religious and spiritual symbols specially taken from primary sources alongside with a deeply energetic painting has generated a unique, exceptional reflection on what is a collective past. The most important elements in his works are the juxtaposition of African, Asian, and indigenous American cultures and values with the deteriorating forces of contemporary society, industrialism and wars. Some of Bedia’s most celebrated works include the design for the floors and railings of the Opera House and the Concert Hall at the Performing Art Center in Miami, inaugurated in 2006. He has presented his extensive body of work in different memorable exhibitions like 10 Floridians at the Miami Art Center (2003), Contemporary Narratives in American Prints at the Whitney Museum of Art (2000), Latin American Artists of the Twentieth Century at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) (1993) and Magiciens de la Terre at The Centre Georges Pompidou (1989).
ángel delgado
Delgado recently participated in the First Biennial of Canarias 2006 and in 2004 he was granted with a residence for new installations at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh. He is a Cuban contemporary artist who transcended in the decade of the 90s when he was sent to prison for realizing a politically incorrect performance. His work has been marked by reflecting upon his personal experience. He uses non-conventional materials such as soap to produce installations and sculptures and color pencils with cold cream to draw on handkerchiefs.
rené francisco rodríguez
He will be participating in the 52nd Venice Biennial next June, representing his country. A very important artist in the history of Cuban contemporary art he has transcended various generations. Together with Eduardo Ponjuán, he was one of the principal members of the Generation of the 80s in Cuba; later he participated in the Generation of the 90s where he founded and directed the celebrated Grupo DUPP, which marked the epoch. Today René Francisco’s work continues to attract international interest.
atelier morales
Formed as architects, Teresa Ayuso and Juan Luis Morales are currently at the forefront of contemporary Cuban artists in exile. The Atelier Morales opened in Paris in 1997 through a desire to collaboratively reflect on art, vernacular architecture, and design. Their work transcends the limits of Cubanness as their concerns can be seen as universal. They have worked primarily through the use of photography as a mediating tool. Using highly poetic and critical articulations the artists reflect in general on social and economic inequities which cause the loss of heritage and patrimony and global migrations. Their series Los Bohíos was exhibited at the I Prague Biennale, curated by Lauri Firstenberg. This year, Atelier Morales will have a Solo Exhibition at the Heidelberger Kunstverein in Germany, presenting the Viaje Equinoccial series.
rodolfo peraza
One of the most intelligent young Cuban contemporary artists, Peraza reflects upon private situations and represents the interior world of a person in an unusual way. He uses signs and public signals as support for his images. The graphic man, which he calls “Hombre Concreto”, thus represents the universal man in the language of signposting, designed to organize the individual within public spaces. Peraza recently showed his work in a collective show at the MOCCA, Toronto, curated by Magda González.
manuel piña
Even as Manuel Piña graduated in mechanical engineering from the Vladimir Polytechnic Institute in Russia, in 1983, he became instead one of the most recognized and respected Cuban artists in exile. The main focus of his work is photography, but also installation, audio and video. He usually explores the urban space, full of evidence of its history, past and present. Collecting and manipulating these evidences and composing his own narratives through them, is a common exercise. His work –shown through different solo exhibitions in Vancouver, Milan, Vienna, Mexico, New York and Cuba- is part of the renowned Daros Latinamerican Collection in Switzerland.
sandra ramos
Sandra Ramos is one of the best known female contemporary artists in Cuba. Her work, which includes various techniques such as installation, painting, engraving and drawing, is based on the recuperation of the social and the individual memory and is linked to the difficulties of everyday life in Cuba as well as to themes like loneliness, migration and the manipulation of history and memory. There is great international interest in her work; shown by the fact, that it part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.TBA21.Vienna Collection. She has exhibited at The Mattress Factory, Pittsburg and has recently realized the curatorial project Havana Factory for the experimental space A’Chocolatería, in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
martín soto
Martín Soto’s work reflects a constant aesthetic observation of daily-life objects. Instead of only contemplating the beauty of a simple object, he highlights the subtle aesthetics that lie behind the veil of the usual. Thus, Soto’s artworks are experiments with compositions in a determined space, playing with infinity of visual, mental and spatial propositions. He had been granted awards and residencies but had never wanted to exhibit in a commercial space. In 2006 he decided he was ready; participated in the MACO art fair and had a solo show, both through nina menocal gallery, Mexico City; from then on he has had solo shows at Broadway 1602 in New York, 2006 and Vilma Gold, London, 2007 and has participated at the international fairs Liste, Basel and Artíssima, Turin.
