Eduardo Ponjuán

Eduardo Ponjuán
Eduardo Ponjuán

Pinar del Río, Cuba, 1956

Eduardo Ponjuán is one of the essential artists in the historiography of Cuban art. His work, which emerged at the height of the 1980s, has the ability to always go a little deeper into the precipice of certain truths, to surpass itself as a discursive spring, to shock, to make us shut up and watch him compulsively. The key to this, somehow whimsical and tremendous, seems to lie in his unlimited talent to invoke that which can be, or is, essential to man. That is the origin of his most fertile and polysemic silences.

Mounted on the alibi of a conceptualism that has been able to reinvent itself, his work moves in different directions. Sometimes he speaks with a light and monosyllabic accent, sometimes he is scathing and shouts without regard. There is no precise and fair way of categorizing him, because in his case any taxonomy becomes reductionist. Ponjuán is a painter, installationist, draftsman, conceptual artist, inexhaustible thinker. Art is all a starting point, the trough from which he takes what he needs to question the world.

After more than three decades of sustained work, he has had numerous personal and collective exhibitions, both on and off the island. Among the most significant projects are the following: Sputnik (2017), El Apartamento, Havana, Cuba; Scratch (2016), which took place at the Museum of World Cultures (MUDEC), Milan, Italy; Kiss me a lot (2014) y It's on the tip of my tongue (2004), both at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) in Cuba; Wild Noise (2017), at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, USA and. Farewell Utopia: Dreams and Deceptions in Cuban Art since 1950 (2017), at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, USA. He has participated in events of the relevance of the Venice Biennale (2011), the Havana Biennial (2015, 2012, 2009, 2006, 1997, 1994), the Biennial of Southern Panama (2013), the Cuenca Painting Biennial (2009, 1999) and the Malta International Biennial (1999).

His work has received a number of local and international awards. Outstanding among them are the National Plastic Arts Award (2013) and the National Curatorial Award (2007), both granted by the National Council of Plastic Arts of Cuba (CNAP). He also won the First Prize for Collage at the International Biennial of Malta (1999) and the scholarship awarded by the Browstone Foundation of France (2005). His works are part of prestigious collections such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) in Havana, the Daros Latinamerica Collection in Switzerland, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection in Italy, the Farber Collection, the Blanton Museum of Art and the ASU Art Museum, all in the United States.

Eduardo Ponjuán

curriculum

studies

1974        
Provincial School of Art. Pinar del Río. Cuba.    
1978
National School of Art. Havana. Cuba.          
1983
Higher Institute of Art ISA. Havana. Cuba.

personal exhibitions

2017
SputnikThe Apartment. Havana, Cuba.
2016

Scratch
Museum of World Cultures (MUDEC). Milan, Italy.
2015
Untitled, from the series Unmonumentalintervention in the XII Biennial Catalog of
Havana, pp. 246-247. Havana, Cuba
Gone to the beach, Zona Franca, collateral XII Havana Biennial, Morro-Cabaña Military Historical Park. Havana, Cuba.
2014
Kiss me a lot, National Museum of Fine Arts. Havana, Cuba.
2013
The thief of the silk hands, Habana Gallery. Havana, Cuba.
2009
Make a wishcollateral of the X Havana Biennial, Art Center 23 and 12, Havana, Cuba.
Havana, Cuba.
2007  
SalitreVilla Manuela Art Gallery, UNEAC. Havana, Cuba.
SouthCenter for the Development of Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba.
2006  
Opera Rex, La Casona Gallery, IX Havana Biennial. Havana, Cuba.
A single stroke, Tomás March Gallery. Valencia, Spain.
2004  
It's on the tip of my tongue, National Museum of Fine Arts. Havana,
Cuba.
2003
Erratum (Los pinareños no miran al cielo), MAPRI. Pinar del Río, Cuba.
Twilight, Oleos Gallery. Matanzas, Cuba.
LimboHabana Gallery. Havana, Cuba.
KoanMuseum of Rum. Havana, Cuba.
2002
VacuumICAIC Art Center. Havana, Cuba.
2001
SentidoSmall Space Gallery, National Council of Plastic Arts. Havana, Cuba.     
My mind my castleTrinidad Art Gallery. Sancti Spíritus, Cuba   
For various concepts, Gallery 106 Flatbed. Austin, USA
1999
Profane readingsMedellín Central Library. Medellín, Colombia.
Pfor a variety of concepts, Habana Gallery, Havana, Cuba.       
1998
SeeSaura Hall, Diputación de Huesca. Huesca, Spain.
1997
Utopian Territories: New Art from Cuba, OR Gallery. Vancouver, Canada.      
1996
Call Malevich, Kunsthalle. Düsseldorf, Germany.  
Call MalevichKunsthalle Lingen. Lingen, Germany.
1995
Alternating currentWilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center. Havana, Cuba.
Lhe sample of the month, Anglutinating Space. Havana, Cuba.
1994
FlightI.F.A. Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
1993
Art and comfort, Nina Menocal Gallery. Mexico City, Mexico.
1992 
Come and give me a handGallery 12 and 23. Havana, Cuba.
1989
Amelodramatic artist, Castillo de la Real Fuerza Project. Havana, Cuba.
1988
Reading 2, Gallery of Light and Trades. Havana, Cuba.
1985
DrawingsArt Gallery of Pinar del Río. Pinar del Río, Cuba.
1984
InksViñales Gallery. Pinar del Río, Cuba.
1983  
Landscapesdegree thesis, Sala Talía. Havana, Cuba.  

works

Broken pitchers, 2022
Sculpture
Boots, rope mice, gold leaf
Variable dimensions

Untitled
 December 3, 2017 / October 29, 2017.
Conté pencil on cardboard 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5.12 in)
Untitled
December 3, 2017 / October 29, 2017.
Conté pencil on cardboard 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5.12 in)

Broken pitchers, 2022
Sculpture
Boots, rope mice, gold leaf
Variable dimensions

Untitled
 December 3, 2017 / October 29, 2017.
Conté pencil on cardboard 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5.12 in)
Untitled
December 3, 2017 / October 29, 2017.
Conté pencil on cardboard 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5.12 in)

Blue Mountains, 2020
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm
(39.4 x 39.4 in)

Flashes, 2021
Oil on canvas
200 x 300 cm
(78.74 x 118.11 in)

On the Road, 2020
Oil on canvas
170 x 248 cm
(67 x 97.6 in)

Blue Mountains, 2020
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm
(39.4 x 39.4 in)

Flashes, 2021
Oil on canvas
200 x 300 cm
(78.74 x 118.11 in)

On the Road, 2020
Oil on canvas
170 x 248 cm
(67 x 97.6 in)