Armando Mariño

Armando Mariño (born 1968) is a Cuban artist. He works with oil and watercolour and is known for his strong, vibrant and intense palette. He is the holder of many awards including the Segundo Premio, Salón Nacional de Arte contemporáneo Cubano. He lives and works in New York.

Biography Armando Mariño was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba in 1968 into a family of scientists. His mother was a physicist and his father an engineer. Despite their desire that he follow a scientific career, he chose to pursue his love of art. He graduated from the Provincial School of Arts in Santiago de Cuba in 1987 and the School of Artistic Education at the “Enrique José Varona” Superior Pedagogic Institute in Havana in 1992. He claims that the most important lesson learned from these Cuban artists was the awareness of contemporary art theories and concepts. In 2004 and 2005 he studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Much of his work reflects social unrest, protests and rebellion. He uses bold, vibrant colours, in multiple layers to build up his oil or watercolour works. "Armando Marino filled his paintings around the end of the 1990s with corrosive historical fictions in which Cuban and European-Western art history crash into each other" His works are displayed in numerous galleries around the world including the Gericke + Paffrath Gallery, Coates & Scarry (London, UK) and Faction Art Project NY

Works The Raft (La Patera). 2002. Sculpture. The Farmer's Daughter. 2012. Oil on canvas. House of the Colors. 2012. Oil on canvas. The Revolutionary. 2013. Oil on canvas. The Flower Man. 2013. Oil on canvas. Memento Mori. 2013. Oil on canvas. Crying Girl. 2015. Oil on canvas. Tree House. 2015. Oil on canvas. Narcissus. 2017. Watercolor on paper. The Coldest Night. 2017. Oil on canvas.

The Raft The Raft sculpture was acquired by 21c Museum, Kentucky, USA in January 2011. It features a wheel-less 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe. The car is supported by a multitude of Cuban legs, depicting the hardships and arduous journeys undertaken by Cubans to leave the Island. It can be seen to represent the resourcefulness and strength of the Cuban people as a symbol of hope, marching forward towards a better life.

This is the second rendition of the sculpture. The first was displayed at the Havana Biennial, Cuba in 2003. The sculpture was unable to be taken out of Cuba after the exhibition and was eventually destroyed.