Ciro Quintana
b. 1965
Havana, Cuba
Ciro currently resides in the United States, living and working in Miami.
Founder of Puré Group, a collective of five students at ISA (Institute of Superior Art, in Havana, 1986-1988), Quintana is one of the most iconic Cuban artists of the 80’s generation. Their lofty goals were to “…express(es) through current media and forms a critical and evaluative vision of our society and moment; and (we) respond in time by questioning why, how and from where to take on art.” This conceptual thread and societal critique is still prevalent in Ciro’s work.
“From the very beginning my work was a search for a system into which I could fit everything with a language apt to express what I wanted to say while including the viewer in the whole process. I use the comic strip, the legacy of art history, pulp art, scenes from old movies, pop culture icons, parody and the use of the traditional realistic representations as an instrument to blind and trap the viewer into the travel of the narrative, of the language of the painting.
My works are like characters in my life; they have a personality just as real as characters in a novel or in a movie, an open stage where the public, the artist, the form, the story and the concept collide in a battle for survival.” - Ciro Quintana
The artist’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions internationally. His work is in the permanent collections of: Ludwig Forum for International Kunst Collection (Aachen, Germany), National Museum of Fine Art (Havana, Cuba) ,Pori Taiden Museum (Finland), Lowe Art Museum (Miami, FL, US), NSU Museum of Art (Ft. Lauderdale, FL, US), Museum of Modern Art (Dominican Republic), MOAS Art Museum (Daytona Beach, FL, US), CIFO Collection (Miami, FL, US), MOCAA Museum of Art (Miami, FL, US).