Reynier Ferrer Pérez
I understand art as Kundera saw it: “The true mission of art is not to create beautiful objects. It is a metaphysical operation - a method to reach the truth..”
Reynier Ferrer Pérez was born in Havana, Cuba on August 17th, 1979. He pursued his early studies at the School of Fine Arts at San Alejandro. After completing four years of technical training, he graduated from the institution in 2004. That same year, he studied fine arts under Spanish painter José Luis Fajardo at the “Man and His Purlieus” Studio. Ferrer currently lives and works in Miami.
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Reynier had several solo exhibitions in Cuba. Among his most significant were: “Vestigios” in 2006, “Mater Natura” in 2008, and “The Roads of Memory” in 2011, with the latter in collaboration with the writer, Edmundo Desnoes. Reynier traveled to the US alongside “The Roads of Memory” exhibiting in various galleries and museums, such as the Lincoln Center in New York, the Warwick Museum in Rhode Island and the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, Rhode Island. In 2011, he was chosen to be an artist-in-residence at 220 Gallery in Rhode Island. Later, his work was selected for the Homage to One Hundred Years of Abstraction Exhibition at The National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, Cuba. These works now form part of their collection. To date, his work has been exhibited individually and collectively in more than 30 countries.
Ferrer wants to communicate and tell stories through his works, to create other worlds, and invite his viewers in to think. By titling his works with sharp metaphors and poetic inflections, he supports his works textually and literarily. With these added complexities he leaves the viewer meditating on the possible relationships between the paintings and their visualities. He entices his audience to imagine fables and allegories that enrich their perceptive experience.
The visual tours of his works suggest sexual desire and its contrary – impertinence. The heaviness of his paint drips and the explosiveness of his textures speak to the visual – tactile experience they express. The dynamic lines create cracks and empty spaces that exalt the spiritual and human depth within the artist. On the other hand, his works also play with humor through their conceptual and stylistic skill. Ferrer unsettles audiences with insinuations of visages, landscapes, and architectural details that disappear just as they appeared on the canvas, leaving behind only specks within the realm of his abstraction. His paintings do not know monotony or repetition. They present themselves, renewed, experimental, and ready for new aesthetic adventures within each viewer. His work is a testament to his significance within the Cuban art world in the last five years.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Important Exhibitions
2023 Reynier Ferrer, Art of the World Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
2016 Made in USA, Carlsbad Museum & Art Center, Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA
2015 Ritual en la Isla, 12th Havana Biennial, Yara Cinema, Havana, Cuba
2011 The Roads of Memory, Lincoln Center, New York, USA The Roads of Memory, Warwick Museum, Rhode Island, USA
2008 Mater Natura, Convento San Francisco de Asís, Havana, Cuba
Important Group Exhibitions
2013 Miami River Art Fair, Miami, Florida, USA
LA Art Show Fair, Los Angeles, California, USA
2012 Houston Fine Art Fair, Houston, Texas, USA
2010 La Otra Realidad, Exposición Homenaje a Cien Años de Abstacción, Cuban National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba Dirección de Artes Plásticas Festival Proposiciones, Havana, Cuba
2009 Torneo Audiovisual 1 Minuto, MOCCA, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto, Canada Restaurate, Colateral, 10th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba
2009 Cuban Art in New York, New York, USA
2007 ArtDC, Washington D.C., USA Arteaméricas, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
2003 Collective Exhibit of José Martí, Covarrubia Salon, National Theatre of Cuba, Havana, Cuba Salón de los Pasos Perdidos, National Capital, Havana, Cuba
Permanent Collections
National Museum of Fine Arts, Cuba
American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Pennsylvania, USA
Norwegian Cruise Line Collection, Miami, Florida, USA
Regent Seven Seas Cruises