Maikel Martinez was born in 1977 in Pinar de Rio, Cuba.
Maikel is auto-didactic, only beginning to draw at age 16 in Cuba by sketching the surroundings of the tropical and beautiful countryside of his youth.
He left Cuba alone at age 30 in 2006; traveling months via the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and finally landing in Miami, where he presented his first solo exhibition, Entre luz y sombra, at the Baxter Gallery.
He is a consummate realist of landscape themes, a tradition which has been a staple of Cuban painting since the early 19th century —with artists such as Eduardo LaPlante, Esteban Chartrand, and Guillermo Collazo, and by the works by modern and contemporary masters such as Carlos Enríquez and Tomás Sánchez.
He is distinguished from his peers in Cuban landscape painting by how he interprets his canvases allegorically to describe the inner world of those displaced in territorial and affective terms. The clean lines of his landscapes use a symbolism imbued with references to the epic farewells, the sense of loss, the emotional schisms and the loneliness that have affected the lives of successive generations--now, five decades- of Cubans. The concentrated minimalism of the bucolic referents--palms, clouds, vegetation, shacks, bodies of water--are testimonies of history’s less-than-happy endings.
Martinez has exhibited widely in Chile, Spain, Brazil, Jamaica, Portugal, Germany, Cuba, Mexico Panama and Miami. His work has sold successfully in Christie’s Latin American Art sales in New York.
www.galeriainterart.com
AUCTIONS AND ART FAIR
2019 Latin American Art Auction, Christie’s, NY, USA.
2018 Latin American Art Auction, Christie’s, NY, USA.
2017 Latin American Art Auction, Christie’s, NY. USA.
2011 MOLAA Auction, Californi, USA.
2008 ArteAméricas 2008, Miami Beach, Florida, EEUU
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2019 Latin American Show, Interart Gallery, Mexico DF.
2016 Latin American Show, Interart Gallery, Mexico DF.
2015 Maikel Martínez, Armando Zesatti, Pedro Diego Alvarado, Vicente Gandía,
“Obra Latinoamericana “. Galería Interart. Mexico DF.
2014 Maestros Latinoamericanos, Bond Latin Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
2013 “Yearning & Desire”. Recents works, Duo Exhibition by Maikel Martinez and Eduardo
Sarmiento. Jorge M. Sori Fine Art, Coral Gables. Florida.
2013 “Before the Alarm”, Artwork selection of Sayago and Pardon Latinoamerican Art
Collection, Bank of America Gallery, Three Stages Folsom Lake College, Folsom
California, USA
2011 "Independiente”, Galería La Crujia, Oaxaca, México
2005 Salón Nacional de Paisaje "Tiburcio Lorenzo", UNEAC, Pinar del Río, Cuba
2003 Salón Nacional de Paisaje “Tiburcio Lorenzo”, UNEAC, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
2002 “Paisajes de Siempre”, Galería Víctor Manuel, Habana, Cuba
2001 Alpha Internacional Fine Art., Florida, EEUU
2000 “Caminos hacia el Monte”, CDAV, Pinar del Río, Cuba
2000 “Arte Contemporánea Cubano”, Expo Colectiva, Duisburg, Alemania
1999 “Cores de Cuba”, Galeria de Arte, Lisboa, Portugal
1999 La Boheme Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida, EEUU
1998 Galería Hator, Gijón, España
1998 Chelsea Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1997 “Pintura Cubana”, Mato Grosso, Brasil
1996 “Ventana Plástica en Dos Hermanas”, Sevilla, España
1994 “Paisajes Cubanos”, Galería Varadero, Matanzas, Cuba
1993 “Pintura Cubana en Chile”, Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
SOLO ART EXHIBITION
2006 “Entre luz y sombra”, Baxter Gallery, Miami, Florida, EEUU
2000 “Naturaleza Viva: Cuerpos del Eterno Retorno”, Galería Anonimous, Cuidad Panamá, Panamá
1993 " Inicios", ISP, Pinar del Río, Cuba.
AWARDS
2005 Salón Nacional de Paisaje, "Tiburcio Lorenzo", Premio Paisaje, UNEAC, Pinar del Río, Cuba
2003 Salón Nacional de Paisaje, “Tiburcio Lorenzo”, Mención Especial, UNEAC, Pinar del Rio, Cuba
2000 Premio Salón Nacional de Paisaje " Tiburcio Lorenzo", UNEAC, Pinar del Río, Cuba
1999 Premio Salón Nacional de Paisaje " Tiburcio Lorenzo", UNEAC, Pinar del Río, Cuba
1996 Premio del Ministerio de Cultura y Fondo De Bienes Culturales a Paisaje, en Salón Provincial de Artes Plásticas, CDAV, Pinar del Río, Cuba
