Highlights
Zaida del Río (1954 Las Villas) is a woman artist, a tireless, fervent exponent of Cuban fine arts, and defender of femininity mostly via her poetry. She gets her inspiration in her most profound desires for an equitable world in balance with Mother Nature. Dancing figures, in which femininity is a principle element, navigate through dissimilar worlds and universes. The skill and grace of her brush take over her shapes of religiousness and hedonism that become melded into one.
Zaida is a Cuban painter who has gained a deserved spotlight among recognized Cuban contemporary artists.
Curriculum
Zaida del Río
Born June 3, 1954 in Guadalupe, Las Villas. She studied en the National School of Art and the Superior Institute of Art in Havana, and the School of Fine Arts in Paris.
Drawer, engraver, painter, muralist, poet and ceramic and textile decorator, she has numerous expositions and prizes under her belt, the most notable being the itinerant showing of Contemporary Cuban Art, Sweden-Norway-Denmark (1976); Cuban Art, in the Sing Gallery, New York (1982); ARCO 96, Spain. Among the prizes she has won is that for drawing, National Salon of Fine Arts, UNEAC, Cuba (1979), and first prize for painting, Cairo, Egypt Biennale (1993).
In 1987 she attended a course on Cuban culture at the San Carlos and San Ambrosia Seminary in Havana, where the religious bent of her work began, resulting in publishing of drawings in the classic book Herencia, a continuation of Refranes about ‘Santeros.’ After a year of study in France in the noteworthy Hayter Workshop, and travelling through Italy, Spain, England, Germany, and Holland, Zaida del Río returned to her interest producing art.
Studies completed
Drawing, engraver, decorator and illustrator. She undertook studies in the National School of Art and the Superior Institute for Art in Havana, and in the School of Fine Arts in Paris.
Solo Shows
1976 Narrations. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana.
1981 Notes from our Countryside. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Havana.
1982 Agora Gallery, Tabasco, Mexico.
1988 “Corazonadas.” Wilfredo Lam Centre, Havana.
1989 Dreams of Barcelona in the death of Bali. G Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
About Love. Chanteaux Lormont, Bourdeaux, France.
The Angel’s Signal. International Graphic Center, Rome, Italy.
1991 Ninart Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
1992 Refrains. Evasion Gallery, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Calvin Morris Gallery, New
York, USA.
1994 Fort de France Cultural Centre, Martinique.
1997 Alcalá de Henares University, Spain.
Promo-Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan.
Temporary Space Gallery, Sapporo-Hokkaido, Japan.
1998 Works on Paper. Aquelarre Gallery, San Pedro de Alcantara, Malaga, Spain.
Collective Exhibitions
1981 Young Artists Retrospective. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
1982 Cuban Art. The Sing GalIery, New York, USA.
1984 Joan Miró Competition. Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona, Spain.
1987 Cuban Painting. United Nations, New York; Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art
New York, USA.
1989 Salon “Young Painter, Young Expression." Nesle Gallery, París, France.
1995 “The Shape of the Earth,” Buades Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
1996 ARCO Fair. Madrid, Spain.
1997 Iberoamerica Paints. Casa de América, Madrid, Spain.
Prizes
1979 Drawing Prize, National Salon of Fine Arts, UNEAC, Cuba.
1984 Lithograph Prize, National Engraving Encounter, Cuba.
1993 Gold Medal,1st Prize for painting Cario Biennale, Egypt.
1998 Painting Prize, Tenri Biennale, Japan.