Rafael Soriano
Bio
Rafael Soriano was born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1920, and passed in Miami, FL in 2015. Garnered recognition from his lifetime continued, as from 2017 – 2018, the most comprehensive exhibition on Soriano’s work, titled ‘The Artist as Mystic,’ debut at the McMullen Museum, Boston College and traveled to the Long Beach Museum of Art in California the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University. In 2023, Rafael Soriano became the first Cuban exile to exhibit at the Casa de Americas in Madrid.
Soriano’s work forms part of world-renowned permanent collections, some being the Art Museum of the Americas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Blanton Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, Long Beach Museum of Art, McMullen Museum of Art, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana), The Lowe Museum of Art at the University of Miami, NSU Art Museum and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
Statement
Rafael Soriano, 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. 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.
2.5 x 4m / 98.4 x 157 in
