In Focus

This exhibition highlights the work of Cuban artist Rafael Soriano (1920-2015) from his mature period of the 1990s. One of the major Latin American artists of his generation, Soriano was a key figure in introducing Concrete Art, a geometric style devoid of symbolism or representation, in Cuba. In the wake of the 1959 revolution, Soriano fled to Miami in 1962 and stopped painting for two years out of exiled despair. Upon receiving a spiritual revelation in a dream, Soriano began painting again and his style transformed from geometric abstraction into the oneiric, luminous gradations of light and shadow he came to be known for, some of which are exhibited here.

In these complex paintings, light is both the style and content. Soriano has fashioned a profoundly unique visual vocabulary, one with biomorphic forms that seem to bloom during the night, becoming ensouled and enfleshed in all the emotional piercingness of being. Seeking to dwell in a realm where, according to the artist, ‘the intimate and the cosmic converge,’ these paintings recall Emerson’s notion of the soul: ‘The soul is not… a function, like the power of memory… [nor] a faculty, but a light.’

Soriano’s work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University; Lowe Art Museum, Miami; Museo de Arte Zea, Medellin, Colombia; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Cuba; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; among others.

For more information about In Focus: Rafael Soriano, please contact us at info@hollistaggart.com or +1 212.628.4000.

For press inquiries, please contact Aga Sablinska at aga.sablinska@gmail.com or +1 862.216.6485.