José Luis Lorenzo
José Luis Lorenzo Díaz (Pinar del Río 1976 - 2024) was a distinguished Cuban multidisciplinary artist and educator known for his work in sculpture, instalación, pintura, and printmaking.
He graduated from the Professional School of Plastic Arts of Pinar del Río, and later served as an art instructor at the Casa de la Cultura Pedro Junco in his hometown. Lorenzo was an active member of both the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS) y el Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC)
Over his prolific career, he held more than 24 exposiciones individuales, incluido "Metáfora Insular" (1998), "Sacrificios de fin de siglo" (2000), y "Herra‑Dura" (2002)
He also participated in numerous exposiciones colectivas at local, national, and international levels—such as the II Salon de Arte Religioso Contemporáneo in Pinar del Río (1995), the Visualidad Tropical (2008), and international contemporary art fairs in Italy, Canadá, Argentina, and South Korea.
Lorenzo received encima 28 prestigious awards and mentions, including multiple CUBANeo Prizes for Plastic Arts(1998, 2001, 2003), first-place recognitions in provincial “Salón 14 de Diciembre,” and installation/sculpture prizes at Visuarte 2001 in Cienfuegos.
His works were collected in private and public collections across Alemania, Argentina, Bélgica, los Estados Unidos, España, Italia, Nicaragua, Noruega, Portugal, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Lorenzo’s art has also been featured in notableinternational catalogs, including Spoleto Festival Art (Italia, 2013), IAAF Seúl (Corea del Sur, 2012), and the International Modern Art Catalog MDS No. 12 (2012–2013), as well as in reference texts such asEscultura en Cuba Siglo XX by José Veigas and theDiccionario Biográfico de las Artes Plásticas – Tomo IIby Ursulina Cruz Díaz
Plan de estudios
The figurations of José Luis Lorenzo will not please all audiences. The artist does not seek beauty, understood as full harmony of forms. José Luis Lorenzo favors speech. Assumes expressionism as a basis to recreate contemporary dilemmas. Theirs are anthropomorphic creatures, animals that assume ways and customs of the human being. Or perhaps —it could be another reading— the animal is the mask that covers the face of man.
There is a certain ludic vocation in these pieces, a certain delight in narratives associated with the children's universe. Some of these works could illustrate a children's storybook. But that is a superficial vision: a more attentive look will discover crudeness that is not at all innocent. The transfiguration as a resource, the popular imagination as a context. And here and there, diaphanous metaphors about the human condition.
José Luis Lorenzo uses a living palette in his most recent works. Bright colors that shed light on the protagonists of their stories. Because that's what it's all about: telling the story. All the pieces are stagings: actors on a set, adventures at times daunting, dreamlike storytelling that builds bridges with what we call reality.
