Néstor ARENAS

BIOGRAPHY

Néstor Arenas (b. 1964, Holguín, Cuba) is a leading neo-figurative artist whose work combines historical references with autobiographical narratives, exploring experiences of life under Cuba’s communist regime alongside reflections on contemporary capitalist society.

Arenas graduated from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana, in 1990. From 1995 to 2001, he lived in Spain, where he presented several solo exhibitions. He relocated to Miami in 2001 and has since developed numerous solo exhibitions, such as Transforming Landscapes III (CCEMIAMI, 2016) and Dichotomous Structure (Kendall Art Center, 2017). His recent solo exhibition Looking Forward was presented at the Hamlin Creative Space–Weitz Center for Creativity at Carleton College (2018) in Northfield, Minnesota. In 2022, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, France, commissioned Arenas to create a monumental mural measuring 6 meters high by 40 meters long for one of the largest exhibitions of Cuban art held in France in recent years. Arenas was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2019 in recognition of his artistic career.

TECHNIQUE

In describing his practice, Néstor Arenas states that he seeks “a reflection on the landscape and the geometric languages present in architecture and the history of art,” creating compositions that synthesize the experiences gathered across the different places where he has lived. He conceives these works as “possible landscapes,” visions in which diverse iconographies and realities coexist to propose new, alternative worlds. Art critic Dennys Matos similarly observes that Arenas’s imagery “immerses us in an imaginary where memory, impulses and desires merge,” producing landscapes that are “neo-figurative and abstract at the same time,” where historical references and personal biography converge. Through this combination of structural rigor, symbolic layering, and shifting spatial vocabularies, Arenas constructs a visual language that reflects on uncertainty while imagining new forms of coexistence.