Born 1965, Havana, Cuba. Founder of Puré Group, Quintana is one of the most iconic Cuban artists of the 80s. Entering the work of Ciro Quintana is like daring behind the scenes. We attend a complex mise en scène jam-packed of scorn of which the artist makes us participants and accomplices at a time.

Ciro Quintana (Havana, 1964) is one of the cardinal artists within the second wave of the so-called Cuban Renaissance or New Cuban Art. His work, along with that of Ana Albertina Delgado, Adriano Buergo, Ermi Taño and Lázaro Saavedra, shook the artistic and social panorama of Cuba in 1986 when the iconoclastic group Puré -characterized as by kitsch, junk art, confusion between boundaries of artistic individualities and, above all, the treatment of themes directly associated with the daily and popular life of Havana at the time- broke in into Havana cultural scene. Although short-lived (the group finally disintegrated in 1987 to give way to the development of the personal poetics of its members), the impact of Puré and its bold collective actions implied a milestone in contemporary Cuban art and, consequently, in the further development of each one of the members of the group.

From very early in his artistic career, Ciro Quintana is interested in the pastiche. His works - often of an installation nature - are sophisticated visual collages. As capricious frames extracted from the most disparate films, the work of Ciro Quintana is an intricate and whimsical phrase only understandable from the reconstruction of implicit ellipses and unexpected collisions that force us to alertness. Indeed some of its top installations, such as “ Adiós a las Armas ” (Farewell to Arms), IV Biennial of Havana (collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana) and ““Pintura político-social” (Political-social painting), exhibition Kuba ok (Ludwig collection Forum for international art collection), are obliged paradigms in this regard.

Heiress direct of these works is his series “Maravillas y pesadillas del arte cubano” (Marvels and nightmares of the Cuban art), in which Ciro Quintana has been working since the year 1987. The series comprises careless collages where the kitsch survive and the initial spontaneity of the atmosphere of Puré in a sort of visual diary in which the artist collects cynically impressions of the daily life.

Ciro Quintana likes cultural clashes and semantic juxtapositions that propitiate a chain of resignifications forcing the continuous repositioning of that intrusive gaze that is the viewer who scrutinize from the proscenium. The use of the draperies and the stage in the work of Ciro Quintana function not as an element of estrangement but as an invitation to intrusion and voyeurism; Magnificent entrance door that forces us to dare into the other side of the mirror.

Throughout his career, his work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Peru, and Venezuela, among other countries. Recent shows include: “Resilience The Other Cuba (Minneapolis, 2015), and “Pulse Art Fair” (New York, 2016). His work is part of major collections such as, Peter Ludwig Collection (Cologne, Germany), Leipzig Museum (Germany), Lowe Art Museum (Miami), Cisneros Fontanals Collection (Miami), The Mosquera Collection (Miami), María Luisa Lobo Collection (Miami), Jorge Reynardus Collection (New York and Sarasota), and the Nina Menocal Collection (Mexico).

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