ARTIST INFORMATION

Rafael Soriano (b. 1920, Matanzas, Cuba – d. 2015, Miami, FL) a pioneer of Latin American modernism, infused his work with explorations of spiritualism to uncover the vastness that lies in the human experience and its inevitable presence in the arts. Having spent seven years studying at the School of Visual Arts, San Alejandro he graduated to pursue a career as an artist, and Professor of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture (1941). He went on to act as a founding member and educator and the School of Fine Arts in Matanzas, cementing his legacy as a leading figure in Cuban art. Soriano created a body of work that aims to showcase the luminosity of raw existence, memory, or emotion, translated for terrestrial consumption through each surrealistic composition. The use of stark, abyss-like backgrounds to frame his subjects, and the meticulous layering of paint have classical roots evoking the atmosphere found throughout the Renaissance, revamped with an introspective lens developed by modern theology.

From 2017 – 2018, the most comprehensive exhibition on Soriano’s work, titled The Artist as Mystic, curated by Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta, debut at the McMullen Museum, Boston College (January 30 – June 4, 2017), and traveled to the Long Beach Museum of Art in California (June 30 – October 1, 2017) and to the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University (October 28, 2017 – January 28, 2018). In 2023, Rafael Soriano became the first Cuban exile to exhibit at the Casa de Americas in Madrid, Spain with a renewed curation of the Artist as Mystic titled El artista como mistico (March 24 – May 26, 2023).

Soriano’s work forms part of world-renowned permanent collections, some being the Art Museum of the Americas (Washington, DC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), Blanton Museum of Art (Austin, TX), Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO), Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach, CA), McMullen Museum of Art (Boston, MA), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana, Cuba),  Lowe Art Museum (Miami, FL), Museo de Arte Zea (Medellin, Colombia), NSU Art Museum (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) and the Pérez Art Museum Miami (Miami, FL).