Pace Gallery, which currently represents Miami-based artist Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, will present the artist’s solo exhibition “Entre El Día Y La Noche” (“Between Day and Night”) in London from September 3 to 28. This will be the artist’s largest exhibition to date and his first major exhibition in the UK. Pace will represent the artist in partnership with KDR in Miami.
Born in Havana in 1990, Pinheiro Bello studied painting at the National School of Fine Arts of San Alejandro from 2006 to 2010. There, the artist developed his signature style, marked by the use of oil on linen or burlap. His bright, expressive works draw on the vibrant Caribbean culture and its diaspora, inspired by his experiences living in Havana and Miami, and occasionally incorporate Surrealist imagery. Pace Gallery has identified his work as similar to that of Cuban artists Wifredo Lam and Manuel Mendive, as well as Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin.
“I remember being in the library of the San Alejandro Institute in Havana about 20 years ago. If you were lucky, you could sometimes get art books or catalogs from outside the island. [and] “There, I first encountered the magnificent, cutting-edge exhibitions held by the galleries and institutions that shape the world of contemporary art,” Pinheiro Bello said. “Seeing these scenes was like discovering a miracle from another world. From that moment on, I dreamed of showing my work in places like these; it was a dream come true.”
“I am very happy to have this position and, above all, to be able to work with such a beautiful and special team, where personal connections are vital and rich,” added Pinheiro Bello.
At Pace Gallery, “Day and Night” will feature a series of new paintings, works on paper, and sculptures, each of which reflects the transition from day to night in Cuba. To explore this theme, Pinheiro Bello uses a rainbow palette and huge canvases, the largest of which is more than 20 feet wide. The works juxtapose classical Western painting techniques with the non-linear narratives typical of Latin American storytelling.
Piñeiro Bello’s first exhibition with Pace Gallery, “Viaje en Espiral,” took place in Seoul last June. In recent years, the artist has exhibited at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana and the NSU Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His work is in several prestigious public and private collections, including the Rubell Museum in Miami and the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul.
“Alejandro Pinheiro Bello fuses his personal memories of Cuba—the sea, the sunsets, the indigo night sky—with the country’s rich cultural history and traditions of dance, music, and marvelous reality,” said Pace President Samanti Rubell. “We are thrilled to welcome his boundless creativity and fresh perspective to Pace programming.”
