Ernesto Garcia Peña (Matanzas, 1949)

Garcia Peña has been described as a ‘dream orchestrator’ whose sinuous  plant motifs often interweave with sensuous male and female forms to create a dreamlike atmosphere with a musical quality. Precisely drawn forms, lyrical shading of colours, and delicate transparencies feature in his work.  The artist is a painter, drawer and engraver who sites a wide range of sources of inspiration from artists such as Cuban painters Carlos Enriquez and Servando Cabrera Moreno, as well as Marc Chagall, Gustav Klimt, Hentri Matisse, Paul Klee, Francis Bacon and several others.  But he says “I think the strongest influences come sometimes from other forms, genres or very different activities that one chooses to express: music, performing arts, cinema, science, or simply our relationship with family, friends, our loves, and even human tragedies.”

Garcia Peña graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 1987 where he specialised in engraving. For almost 20 years, he taught several artistic disciplines at the National School of Art in Cubanacan. Throughout his career he has exhibited widely in countries including Cuba, Columbia, Mexico, Spain, Nicaragua, Panama, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Angola, France, Japan and most recently in Switzerland and the US. His work is held in collections in many of these countries. He has won prestigious awards including from Cuba, Japan and Spain.