The Artist

The son of a tobacco farmer, Carlos Luna was born in the State of Pinar del Rio. His provincial and rural origins have been captured in one of his distinctive personages: this country mustachioed man who wears a hat: arrogant, macho, impulsive, sometimes abusive but also loyal.

From the provident background of his childhood arose the elements of his iconography (the rooster, the bull, the horse, the voluptuous woman) and the anecdotes upon which his images are based. Many of his images reproduce some event or occasion lived or fantasized in his hometown, Luna stages a play where the ridiculous intertwines with the historical, passions with ladies intertwine with political conjecture. Gossip, humor, and tragedy form the textile of his people, and all is metamorphosed is desire.

Excerpted from Jaime Moreno Villarreal’s Carlos Luna: The Artist as He Is

Luna began his formal art education at the School of Fine Arts in Pinar del Río, continued at Havana’s renowned Acedemia San Alejandro and Cubanacan National Art School, and graduated from the Institute of Visual Arts in 1991.

Directly following the “Generation de los ’80” (a early-decade group of artists rising in a spirit of protest, addressing themes and subjects verboten by Castro’s censorship), a tide of activist and artists grew active in the mid-80s. Their visual statements created dynamic transformations, combining a bohemian attitude with cynicism illustrating the evils of the existing dictatorship through a truly indomitable art.

Though a “velvet exile” was a prerogative for some individuals in Cuba—allowing artists to come and go from Cuba as long as their hostilities remained controllable—when Luna left Cuba, there was no going back. He traveled to Mexico, where he met his future wife; it was here that Luna’s work matured with the influences of Mexican muralists Rufino Tamayo and Fransisco Toledo. He and his family settled in Miami in 2003, where he continues to work today, drawing from the international art and academic community there.

Excerpted from Jesús Rosado’s Carlos Luna: An island for the road

Top