Research Type
CuratorDate
2023Notes
Cuban-American painter Luis Cruz Azaceta (b. 1942, Havana) creates vivid, visually dense compositions rooted in his experience of the Cuban diaspora. “The experience of being in exile,” he explains, “is of being in two places simultaneously—physically in your place of exile, emotionally and spiritually in the place you left behind, your roots.” In this arresting self-portrait, painted in the artist’s signature style of “apocalyptic pop,” the burnt cigar, firey halo, and steely gaze hint at a complicated sense of identity.
Trained at the School of Visual Arts, New York, Azaceta is represented by George Adams Gallery. He has received numerous awards and grants including the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. His work can be seen in public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.