Gustavo Acosta

Born in Havana, Cuba, 1958.

EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts San Alejandro, Havana.
Superior Institute of Art ( ISA ), Havana.

SELECTED ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2002
“Books of Hours”, Elite Fine Art, Miami.
“Teorema de las Islas”, Galeria Tamara. San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2001
“Recent Works”, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina.
2000
“Las Trampas de Saturno”, Legacy Fine Art, Panama.
“Espejismos y Memorias”, Lyle O.Reitzel Arte Contemporaneo, Santo Domingo.
“Deciphering Echoes”, Generous Miracles Gallery, New York.
“Hallucinations”, Elite Fine Art, Miami.
1999
“Recent Works”, Elite Fine Art, Miami USA
“Siete tardes”, Galeria Muci, Caracas, Venezuela
1998
“Un experimento con el Tiempo”, Legacy Fine Art, Panama.
“ La huella del Eclipse”, Lyle O’Reitzel Arte Contemporaneo
Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana.
1997
“La Ciudad Prohibida”, Galería MUCI, Caracas, Venezuela.
“Contando las Horas”, Galería Alonso Arte, Bogota, Colombia.
“La Memoria Cifrada”, Galeria Elite Fine Art, Miami, USA.
1995
“On a somber note”, Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
“Trying The Trap”, Gutierrez Fine Arts, Miami Beach, Florida.
1992
Lumbreras Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida.
“Paisajes para lo que queda de Siglo”, Galería Kahlo, Mexico DF.
1991
“Las Sugestiones del Límite”, Galería Habana, Havana.
Galería Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1990
NINART. Mexico DF.
Galería Kahlo-Coronel, Mexico DF.
Complejo Cultural Chaplin, Havana.
1989
“Los Caminos de Roma”, Castillo de la Fuerza, Havana.
Galería Evasión Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1987
“El Hombre”, Museo de Santa Clara, Cuba.
1986
“Trece Escalones” Galería Galiano, Havana.
1983
“Expreso Matanzas-Cienfuegos” Galería Habana, Havana

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2003
“Transfiguration” Palazzo Mediceo, Seravezza, Italy.
2002
“Art Miami 2002” Miami.
“XII Muestra de Pintura y Escultura Latinoamericana”, Galeria Espacio, El Salvador.
“Reality and Figuration: The Contemporary Latin American Presence”. Boca Raton Museum of Art.
2001
“Art Miami 2001” Miami.
“Places in the Heart”. The Arts Center, Saint Petersburg, Florida.
“Cariveo 2001 and the cuban connection”, Lyle O. Reitzel Arte Contemporaneo. Santo Domingo.
“ Selected works from the Cuban Museum of the Americas Collection”. John J. Koubek
Memorial Center, Miami.
“Small-Big Paintings from Latin America”. Generous Miracles Gallery, New York.
“Art Miami 2000”. Miami.
“Cariveo 2000”, Lyle O. Reitzel Arte Contemporaneo. Santo Domingo.
“Latinamerican Spectrum”, Elite Fine Art. Miami, USA.
“2nd Anniversary Group Exhibition”, Hidell Brooks Gallery. Charlotte, North Carolina.
“From Modern to Contemporary”, Lowe Art Museum, Miami.
1999
FIAC. Caracas, Venezuela.
“Mixta s/papel II”, Lyle O Reitzel. Arte Contemporaneo. Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic.
“Nuevas adquisiciones Latinoamericanas, 1994-1998”. Museo de Bellas Artes.
Caracas, Venezuela.
“Obras Maestras del Arte Latinoamericano del Siglo XX”. Biarritz, Francia.
(Coleccion del Museo de Bellas Artes de Caracas, Venezuela en el marco del Festival de Cine
y Cultura de Biarritz)
“Contemporary Cuban Printmakig”, Jose Alonso Fine Arts, Miami.
1998
“Latinamerican Spectrum”, Elite Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida.
1997
“Visiones Contemporáneas”, Lyle O. Reitzel. Arte Contemporáneo. Santo Domingo.Dominican Republic.
“Summer Group Show”, Elite Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida.
“Breaking Barriers”, Museum or Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
1995
“IV Salón de Dibujo”, Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
“Boat Images”, Miami Dade Public Library, Miami, Florida.
Galeria Raices, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1994
“EIGHT-OCHO-HUIT”,Gutierrez Fine Arts, Miami, Florida.
“Alter-Nations”, 123 Galery, Chicago, Illinois.
“Cinco Artistas Cubanos”, Galeria Der Brucke, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Cuba Contemporánea”, Galeria Namia Mondolfi, Caracas, Venezuela.
“13 Artistas Cubanos Contemporáneos”, Centro de Arte Euroamericano, Caracas, Venezuela.
1993
“La ciudad de la Habana vista por sus pintores”, Universidad de Alcala de Henares, Spain.
“Art Miami’93”. Miami Beach, USA.
1992
“Plástica Contemporánea Cubana”, SECOFI, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.
“Once Artistas Cubanos”, Museo del Carmen, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.
“La Década Prodigiosa”, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico, D.F., Mexico.
“ LVII Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas”, Valdepeñas, Spain.
“Continuar la Imagen, Comenzar el Siglo”, Otto Zutz, Barcelona, Spain.
1991
“Los Hijos de Guillermo Tell”, Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela.
X Bienal Internacional de Arte, Valparaíso, Chile.
III Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
IV Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba.
“Los cubanos llegaron ya”, NINART, Mexico DF., Mexico.
1990
“Nuevas adquisiciones contemporáneas”, Museo Nacional, Havana, Cuba.
1989
XX Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1988
“Sings of Transition”, Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New York.
“Arte Contemporáneo en Cuba”, CAYC, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Jornada de la Cultura Cubana”, Centro Cultural de la Ciudad, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Salón UNEAC, Pabellón Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
1987
Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
“ 4x4 Nº 4”, Galeria Hoy en el Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1986
“Il Arte con il Sonrriso”, Milano, Italy.
Segunda Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba.
“ 4x4 Tercera Edición”, Galería Habana, Havana, Cuba.
1985
Salón UNEAC. Museo Nacional, Havana, Cuba.
1984
Primera Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba.
1983
“Encuentro Latinoamericano de Artistas Jóvenes”, Casa de las Américas, Cuba.
Salón de Dibujo Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain.
“Paisaje del Paisaje”, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Czechoslovakia, India.
1982
Salón Nacional del Paisaje, Museo Nacional, Havana, Cuba.
“ 4x4 “, Centro de Arte 23 y 12, Havana, Cuba.

SELECTED AWARDS
1992
Medalla de Oro en Pintura, Primera Bienal del Caribe, Dominican Republic.
Medalla de Oro por el país mejor representado, Primera Bienal del Caribe,
Dominican Republic.
Premio en Pintura del LVII Salón Nacional de Arte, Valdepeñas, Spain.
1991
Premio en Pintura, III Bienal de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador.
1988
Premio en Pintura, Salón UNEAC, Havana, Cuba.
1984
Premio Nacional de Dibujo, Primera Bienal de La Habana, Havana, Cuba.

Penetrating could be the most accurate world to describe what the work of Acosta provokes. In spite of the desolation that he transmits, when one situates oneself in front of it one feels the need to occupy its spaces. The pieces are charged with a strong symbolism and on occasion recur to analogous situations that offer a plurality of readings.

The recurring presence of cypresses in the artist’s paintings provokes various thoughts: it produces the sensation of being before something unknown, of not knowing if he is really speaking of life or of death, and makes latent the duality between them. Confronting his work is somewhat like confronting one’s self since those spaces that could be plazas or constructions anywhere immediately evoke places that we have once known. Gustavo Acosta studied in the Academia de San Alejandro in La Havana and in the ISA- Institute de San Alejandro.

He belongs to the so-called 80’s generation in Cuba, something that makes him a member of the group that made its mark within the Cuban context. Later, for uncertain reasons, he embarked on a journey and ended up making his home outside of Cuba. His work, in spite of having traversed through both logical and experience-based stages, maintains strong consistent threads. He ends up establishing a solid poetry with a strong existential charge where, in spite of the absence of human references, the artist proposes a dialogue around the existence of the human being. The architectures tell of our dilemmas; they are our representation and our memory.

In many of Acosta’s pieces there is nostalgia for unmistakable places in La Havana and in others we find commentary on their reality and future. Preoccupation lies latent in Acosta’s work because there exists a past that he knows too well and of which he is still a part, even far away from Cuba. The questions and clarity that distance generates are manifested in the canvasses to create answers, uncertainties and ironies. Acosta draws his urban landscapes as if he wanted to reconstruct the lost plane of a place that is important to him, remembering an address forgotten in time.

The diagram that forms the drawing that mediates between the object and our vision, provokes and atmosphere that most resembles a vague memory. The human being is not present in any of his spaces; the painter simply gives us the opportunity of remembering personal images. We are only separated by the fine line between art and reality; although the permanent absence of the human figure in Acosta’s work is only apparent.

The fact of having chosen the urban environment may be a call for attention to one of the treasures that man has created: architecture. The towers of the buildings, the corners of La Havana seems breathe in their solitary ambiances. No one remains there, paraphrasing an old Cuban joke: whoever leaves last, please torn off the Faro del Morro (The Lighthouse of the Morro).

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