Tomás Sánchez, 1948 ~ The Enchanting Forests

Tomás Sánchez, one of the most important and celebrated living Cuban Master. His work is meticulous in its breathtaking detail, but the objective of the artist is not so much the recreation of reality as it is displaying the magnificence of a lyrical universe.
Tomás Sánchez, born in Cuba in 1948, invents richly spiritual images of nature in his art. Sánchez graduated in 1971 in National Art School, Cuba. Tomás Sánchez was awarded the 1st prize of Drawing for Young Artists in the National Exhibition of Arts.

His work has been exhibited in over 30 countries. Among his most significant personal exhibitions include: Tomás Sánchez. Retrospective at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba 1985; Tomás Sánchez. Different Worlds at the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA 1996. In May 2008, Sánchez celebrated his 60th birthday with a big show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey Mexico.
His paintings, on one level, conjure metaphors of a paradise long-lost to humanity, while on another level are abstracted stories of the Cuban landscape, dreams inaccessible even to memory.
Sánchez’s work openly invites audiences to contemplate their own existence on Earth. His paintings of imagined space jarringly alternate between a paradise in which the viewer may serenely reflect upon nature and an unforgiving indictment of man’s crime against the environment. His works are a much needed time capsule for future generations. Sánchez currently lives and works in Florida and Costa Rica.

From his graduation until 1976, Sánchez remained in the National Art School as engraving professor; in 1975 won the First Prize in Painting and the First Prize in Lithography at the National Salon of Professors and Instructors of Art in Havana. From 1976-1978, Sánchez worked as stage designer at the Teatro de Muñecos -Children's Theater- of the Ministry of Culture, Cuba. In 1980 he won the First Prize at the XIX Edition of the International Prize of Drawing Joan Miró, for his work Desde las aguas blancas, which launched his international career. The following year, he had an exhibition at the Joan Miró Foundation, Centre of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain.

Other awards include the National Prize for Painting. Havana Biennial (1984); Medal of V American Biennial of Graphic Art, Cali, Colombia (1986); and Honorable Mention. International Painting Biennial, Cuenca, Ecuador (1987).