Reinaldo Arenas | The Parade Ends / La parata è finita

Cammino lungo strade sprofondate,

per le fogne che si disfano

davanti a edifici che devi schivare,

perchè ti cadrebbero addosso,

davanti a facce torve che ti scrutano e ti giudicano,

davanti a negozi chiusi,

mercati chiusi,

Rene Magritte

Reinaldo Arenas | My Lover The Sea / Io sono quel bambino....

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca,

che in ogni angolo ti infastidisce

con il suo "mi dai una monetina"?

Io sono quel bambino con la faccia tonda e sporca, certamente non voluto, che da lontano

contempla gli autobus, in cui gli altri bambini ridono

forte, e fanno salti molto grandi.

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky | At the Door of the School | The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Angel Boligan, 1965 | Surreal cartoonist / illustrator

A>ngel Boligàn Corbo was born in Havana. In 1992 he moved to Mexico. He draws for the newspaper EL UNIVERSAL and the satirical magazines CONOZCA MÁS and EL CHAMUCO. He is a member of the cartoonist group "Cartooning for Peace" and won worldwide more than 130 prizes in cartoon competitions.

Angel comes from a country surrounded by dreams, frustrations and sometimes nightmares. Cuba, land of intensive social and political incidents, gave Bolig án the experience of life. A socialist who later will perceive the capitalist world with a broader look, becoming that way an observer with a surprising maturity.

Luis Enrique Toledo del Rio, 1989 | Magic Realism painter

Born in Santa Clara, Cuba, Luis Enrique Toledo del Rio graduated from Manuel Ascunce Domenech in Cuba.

Toledo del Rio considers his creations a form of magical realism, evoking dreams, fantasy and magic through the use of color, light, shadow and space.

Toledo del Rio achieves, "...dreamlike atmospheres where reality and fantasy intertwine to show a different world".

Juan Carlos Verdial, 1957 | Surrealist painter

Cuban painter Juan Carlos Verdial was born in Havana, Cuba. Graduated from Art Academy of San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba.

He is a graduate of the San Alejandro Academy of Art, the oldest and most prestigious Fine Art school in Cuba, and a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC).

His works have been shown in close to 100 solo and group exhibitions across South, Central, and North America, including Chile, Panama, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica, as well as Miami, Boston and New York.

Denis Nunez Rodríguez, 1967 | Surrealist painter

Cuban painter Denis Nunez Rodriguez was born in Matanzas, Cuba.

He studied drawing and painting in Cuba`s National Art School and graduated in 1986 as a painter and professor of painting and drawing.

Núñez has held numerous solo exhibitions in Cuba and worldwide.

His works have been recognized with numerous awards🎨 and most of them illustrate book covers of famous authors.

Jorge Ignacio Nazábal, 1962 | Surrealist painter

Jorge Ignacio Nazábal Cowan was born in Havana, Cuba.

He graduated in Biology at the University of Havana in 1985 and worked twelve years as a biologist in a cytogenetics laboratory.

In 1996 he began to study at the Academy of San Alejandro Arts of Havana and graduated from there in 2000.

In 1997 he left his job as a biologist and devoted himself to painting.

Federico Beltran Masses | Symbolist / Art Déco painter

Federico Armando Beltrán Massés (1885-1949) was a Cuban-born Spanish artist, renowned as a master of color and the psychological portrait, as well as a painter of seductive images of strong, often scandalous, women.

Federico Beltrán Massés was born in Guaira de la Melena, Cuba.

He studied with the painter Joaquín Sorolla 1863-1923 at l’École des Beaux-Arts de Barcelona and, in 1905, he studied Spanish and European art at the Prado, Madrid.

Cesar Santos, 1982 | Figurative painter

Cesar Santos, Cuban-American, studied at Miami Dade College and the New World School of the Arts before travelling to Florence, where he trained at the Angel Academy of Art under the tutelage of Michael John Angel, a student of Pietro Annigoni.

He returned to Miami, where he developed his philosophy of marrying both the classical and the modern juxtaposed within one painting.

His influences range from the Renaissance to the masters of the nineteenth century to Modernism.

Federico Beltrán-Masses (1885-1949)

Il successo, l'oscurità e poi la riscoperta

Beltrán Masses è stato inondato di onori pubblici ed è stato membro delle Accademie di San Fernando a Madrid, San Jorge a Barcellona e San Luís a Saragozza, nonché quelle di Lisbona, Cordóba e Málaga, e anche membro dell'Istituto francese ed Accademia delle Belle Arti di Parigi.

Il fatto che il suo nome sia stato quasi dimenticato fino a poco tempo è in parte la conseguenza di cambiamenti nel gusto, pittura figurativa abbandonata da tutti tranne una manciata di pittori contemporanei di successo dalla fine degli anni Quaranta fino agli anni Settanta.

Federico Garcia Lorca | Indovinello della chitarra / Riddle of the guitar

Nel rotondo

crocevia

sei fanciulle

ballano.

Tre d’argento

e tre di carne.

Federico Beltrán Masses | Tres Para Uno / Three for one, 1934

Luis Miguel Rodriguez, 1959 | Symbolist painter

Cuban painter Luis Miguel Rodriguez was born in Havana. At the age of 13, his outstanding abilities to create sketches and drawings led to him to be selected by the prestigious academy of art “San Alejandro” of Havana Cuba.

During this time, his love of the sea and the underwater world he discovered temporarily distanced him from the art that he displayed such a passion as well.

His love for underwater diving opened a new prospective for his abilities as an artist.

Ernesto Garcia Pena, 1949 | Abstract painter

Painter, drawer and engraver, Ernesto Garcia Peña has a natural tendency towards fantasy and hedonism, where he ingrains his artworks with a perceptible chromatic gradation of musical notes to express his feelings and emotions towards sensual subjects.

The fine drawing, the explosion of greens and blues, the delicate transparencies, all bestow a voluptuous sensuality to his obsessive search for beauty.

Plant motifs, with an evanescent lightness, create a dreamlike atmosphere that the artist controls at will to tone down or emphasize the eroticism of his enigmatic women or the mating of his levitating couples.

He studied art at the Instituto Superior de Arte. His paintings are part of the collection of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Cuba, Museo de Arte Memorial América Latina, Brasil, Museo de Arte Moderno Miskolc, Hungría and Museo de Arte de Las Américas, Nicaragua.

Julio Larraz, 1944 | Surrealist/Figurative painter

Julio César Ernesto Fernandez Larraz was born in Havana, Cuba, on March 12 1944.

The son of a newspaper editor, he began drawing at a very early age.

In 1961 his whole family moved to Miami, Florida.

In 1962 they moved to Washington, DC and in 1964 to New York.

Alexi Torres, 1976

Cuban painter Alexi Torres creates works that capture the creative powers of the universe as well as the problems facing it. He grapples with how to express the influences of the past, possibilities of the future and the responsibilities of the now. Torres creates woven canvasses which immortalize influential figures and emblems past and present.
He paints leaves, feathers, and other organic materials to create his works, which represent everything from Oprah Winfrey to Pablo Picasso to an unnamed soldier. His works are all-natural, fragile and ephemeral, serving as an answer to his own appreciation of Earth’s needs.

Pedro Álvarez Castelló ~ Tango Argentino

Pedro Reinaldo Álvarez Castelló (1967-2004) was a Cuban painter who rose to prominence during Cuba's Special Period. Alvarez was a native of Havana, Cuba. He studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" from 1980-1985 and the Instituto Superior Pedagogico Enrique Jose Varona from 1986-1991. He was a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. He married a Cuban woman and had a child. When he wasn't travelling to promote his work, he divided his time between Malaga, Spain and Havana.

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.

José Villa Soberón, 1950 | John Lennon Memorial, Havana, 2000

José Ramón Villa Soberón is a Cuban sculptor, particularly known for his public sculptures around Havana. He studied at the The National School of Art in Havana, Cuba and the Academy of Plastic Arts in Prague. He is a professor at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana.

His sculptures, paintings, engravings, drawings and designs are held by the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, and in 1996 he was one of the selected artist in the second Trienal Americana de Escultura in Argentina.

Cesar Santos, 1982

Cesar Santos is a Cuban-born American painter, best known for images that transmit the impression of paintings of the past, but are also imbued with contemporary, fresh concepts and his own philosophy.

His work shows a wide range of influences, including sources as diverse as the Renaissance, Nineteenth Century academic work, and contemporary society.

His artistic energy drives him to arrange elusive figures and objects in conceptual designs, yet rendering them in a believable and convincing way.