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Leandro Soto

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Leandro Soto
BornMarch 13, 1956[1]
Cienfuegos, Cuba
DiedJuly 3, 2022(2022-07-03) (aged 66)
Los Angeles, California
NationalityCuban American
Occupation(s)Visual artist, performance artist, set designer, costume designer

Leandro Soto (born Leandro Soto Ortiz; March 13, 1956 – July 3, 2022) was a Cuban-American multidisciplinary visual/installation and performance artist. He was also a set and costume designer for theater and film. [2] Soto studied at Escuela Nacional de Arte National Art Schools (Cuba) and Instituto Superior de Arte, University of Havana. As an educator he taught and lectured at various Higher Education institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Soto also founded a creative workshop, El Tesoro de Tamulte, in Tabasco, Mexico, from which professional artists emerged. [3]

Biography

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Soto was born on March 13, 1956, in Cienfuegos, Cuba, where he also spent his early life.[4]

Soto was one of the leading figures of the influential “Volumen Uno”, an artistic movement that changed the course of Cuban Art in the decade of the 1980s, in which he was the first artist in his generation to work with the Afro-Cuban heritage.[5][6] He was also credited with being the first performance and installation artist on the island.[7]

In his performances and the visual/installation art which emerged from his performances, Soto responded to the postmodern coordinates of implosion and satire, often subverting the inceptions of culturally accepted notions of high/kitsch, traditional/pop, global/local, and profane/sacred art forms. Throughout his artistic career, he demonstrated an interest in religion, ritual, and the mythology of indigenous people.[4][8]

Soto died July 3, 2022, in California.[9]

Selected solo exhibitions

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  • 2023 Creation in the Moment without Past: the legacy of a remarkable man. The Department of Cultural Studies: Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, University of the West Indies, Barbados, West Indies [10]
  • 2018 Crónicas visuales. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. Havana, Cuba (current catalog, ISBN no. pending)[11][12][13][14]
  • 2015 hacia todas partes ir II. (Everywhere I go) La Acacia Art Gallery, Havana, Cuba.[15][16]
  • 2013 Carpentier in Barbados. Errol Barrow Center for Creative Imagination Art Gallery. University of The West Indies. Barbados, West Indies.[17]
  • 2012 Leandro Soto: Open Windows to the Caribbean. Museum of Finest Cuban Art. Vienna, Austria.[18]
  • 2011 Cuba in the Southwest: The Art of Leandro Soto. Sangre de Cristo Art Center: Hoag Gallery. Pueblo, Colorado.[19]
  • 2006 Leandro Soto Recent Works. Paulina Miller Art Gallery. Phoenix, Arizona[20]
  • 1997 A Glance over the Garden. Big Orbit Gallery. Buffalo, New York[21]
  • 1992 Resonancias de la selva (Resonances of the jungle). Galería Nina Menocal, México D.F.[22]
  • 1984 Retablo familiar (Family altarpiece). Casa de la Cultura. Plaza Gallery and Art Center. Havana, Cuba.[6]

Selected group exhibitions

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  • 2019 Sacbé, Camino de Intercambio (White Road, Exchange Path). Casa del Benemérito de las Américas Benito Juárez, Old Havana, Cuba.[23][24]
  • 2017 Adiós Utopía: Art in Cuba Since 1950. The Museum of Fine Arts. Houston, Texas[25]
  • 2014 Drapetomania, The 8th Floor, New York, NY [26]
  • 2011 Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban Soul. Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey.[27][28]
  • 2008 Cuba! Art and History from 1868 through Today. Musee des Beaux Arts de Montreal, Quebec[29]
  • 2004 Confluencias: Leandro Soto and Raoul Deal. Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin [30]
  • 1998 Ceremonial Lands. Buffalo Arts Studios. Buffalo, New York.[31]
  • 1997 Breaking Barriers. Museum of Fine Arts of Ft. Lauderdale. Florida.[32]
  • 1987 Prague Quadrennial of Stage Design, Prague, Czech Republic[33]
  • 1989 Kitsch. Third Havana Biennial. Galiano-Concordia Art Center. Havana, Cuba.[34]
  • 1981 Volumen Uno. International Art Center. Havana, Cuba [6]

Selected collections

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Soto's work is held in a number of institutional collections, including:

Selected publications

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  • El tesoro de Tamulté: arte desde el trópico. Phoenix. Ariz.: Editorial Orbis Press. 2003. OCLC 58678600.
  • O'Reilly-Herrera, Andrea, ed. (2001). "Testimony of an Artist". Remembering Cuba: legacy of a diaspora (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 245. ISBN 0292731477.
  • Fusco, Coco, ed. (1999). "Performance in Cuba in the 1980s". Corpus delecti: performance art of the Americas (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 266. ISBN 9780415194549.
  • González-Pérez, Armando, ed. (1999). "chapter E-Motions/E-Motions". Presencia negra: teatro cubano de la diáspora (Antología Crítica) (in Spanish). Madrid: Editorial Betania. ISBN 8480171111.

Further reading

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  • Silva, Ana, ed. (2017). Art in Cuba Since 1950. Miami, Madrid: Cisneros Fontanals Foundation. ISBN 9780692820735.
  • Valencia, Marelys (21 August 2016). "Performatividad y plástica: El cruzamiento artístico en la obra de Leandro Soto durante la década "contaminada" de los 80s en Cuba". Latin American Theatre Review (in Spanish). 49 (2): 69–89. doi:10.1353/ltr.2016.0014. ISSN 2161-0576. S2CID 193514226.
  • Fuentes, Rubén (2015). INFLUENCIAS ZEN DE LAS PINTURAS MONOCROMAS ORIENTALES EN OBRAS DE LOS ARTISTAS CUBANOS TOMÁS SÁNCHEZ, LEANDRO SOTO, Y RUBÉN FUENTES (Ph.D.) (in Spanish). Spain: Universitat Politécnica de Valencia.[40]
  • González-Pérez, Armando, ed. (2013). Afro-Cuban theatre of the diaspora : critical essays (First ed.). Ediciones la Gota de Agua. ISBN 978-0981930336.
  • "De Palo pa' Rumba:" An Interview with Leandro Soto, by Isabel Alvarez-Borland (2007). Afro-Hispanic Review,[41] republished by Cross Works, College of the Holy Cross [42]
  • Veigas, José; et al. (2004). Memoria : artes visuales cubanas del siglo XX (in Spanish). Los Angeles, CA, USA: California/International Arts Foundation. ISBN 9780917571121.

Notes and references

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  1. ^ "Cuban Theater Digital Archive". ctda.library.miami.edu. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
  2. ^ Soto, Leandro. "Leandro Soto Papers, Cuban Heritage Collection, University Of Miami Libraries". University of Miami Libraries. Coral Gables, FL. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  3. ^ Soto, Leandro (2003). tesoro-de-tamulte-arte-desde-el-tropico (1st ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Editorial Orbis Press, Phoenix. Ariz. OCLC 58678600. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  4. ^ a b Amitabh, Sharma (November 23, 2014). "Leandro Soto - Where spirituality meets art". Jamaica Gleaner. Kingston, Jamaica. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  5. ^ Weiss, Rachel (2011). To and from utopia in the new Cuban art (1st ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0816665150.
  6. ^ a b c Camnitzer, Luis (2003). New art of Cuba (Nouv. éd. révisée. ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0292705173.
  7. ^ Fusco, Coco (1999). Corpus delecti : performance art of the Americas (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415194549.
  8. ^ Blanc, Giulio, "Review on Leandro Soto", Miami: Art Nexus, October 1994, pp 108-9
  9. ^ "Lamentan fallecimiento del artista cubano Leandro Soto". OnCubaNews (in Spanish). 2022-07-04. Retrieved 2022-07-04.
  10. ^ Soto, Leandro (September 6–26, 2023). "Creation in the Moment without Past". Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  11. ^ Soto, Leandro (April 11, 2018). "Leandro Soto on World Cultures, Cubanidad, and His Show in Havana". Cuban Art News. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  12. ^ Alberdi Benítez, Virginia (March 26, 2018). "La aventura humana de Leandro Soto". Granma.cu (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  13. ^ a b Leon, Ana (19 March 2018). "Las 'Crónicas visuales' de Leandro Soto Cubanet". Cubanet (in European Spanish). Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  14. ^ Mata, Jorge (April 17, 2018). "The chronicles of Leandro Soto". Diario de Cuba (in Spanish).
  15. ^ Gago, Beatriz (March 1, 2016). "Mapping Leandro Soto". Art OnCuba.
  16. ^ Nuñez Leyva, Yanelys (November 18, 2015). "Leandro Soto's New Exhibition at Havana's La Acacia Gallery". Havana Times. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  17. ^ "Carpentier in Barbados". What's On In Barbados. Barbados.org. March 25, 2013. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
  18. ^ a b "Museum of finest Cuban Arts". www.cubanarts.org (in German). Vienna, Austria.
  19. ^ "Cuba in the Southwest: The Art of Leandro Soto". Cuba Transnational. 2011. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  20. ^ "Paulina Miller Studio and Gallery". Arizona Republic. September 18, 2003.
  21. ^ "Obbatala in the Snow: A recasting of Afro-Cuban archetypes". Hopscotch: A Cultural Review. 2 (2): 92. 2001. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  22. ^ Tibol, Raquel (February 15, 1992). "Vorágine y voracidad en Leandro Soto". Revista Proceso (in Spanish). Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  23. ^ Ferrer, Estela. "Sacbe, a path for art". The UNEAC. UNION OF WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF CUBA. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  24. ^ de la Hoz, Pedro (June 24, 2019). "Lucas de Gálvez: laberinto y confluencia". PorEsto!. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  25. ^ "Adiós Utopia". Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  26. ^ Soto, Leandro. "Drapetomania". The 8th Floor. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  27. ^ SCHWENDENER, MARTHA (July 29, 2011). "Myths, Legends and Cuban Culture". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  28. ^ Friswell, Richard (June 24, 2011). "Postmodern Cuban Art on Display at New Jersey Museum". Artes Magazine: 1307. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  29. ^ Bondil, Nathalie, ed. (2008). Cuba : art and history, from 1868 to today (Illustrated ed.). [Montréal]: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. ISBN 978-3791340197.
  30. ^ "Documents of 20-century Latin American and Latino Art". International Center for the Arts of the Americas. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Texas). Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  31. ^ McGinnis, Mara (April 14, 1998). "Exhibit By Soto is On Display At Buffalo Arts Studios". University at Buffalo. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  32. ^ Carol, Damian; Santis, Jorge, eds. (1998). "Breaking Barriers: Selections from the Museum of Art's Permanent Contemporary Cuban Collection". Cataog. Ft. Lauderdale: Museum of Fine Arts. OCLC 37859856.
  33. ^ Quadriennale, Pražské. "PQ 79 | PQ". services.pq.cz. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  34. ^ Weiss, Rachel; Camnitzer, Luis; Fusco, Coco (2011). Making art global. the third Havana Biennial 1989 (1st ed.). London: Afterall Books. ISBN 978-3865609939.
  35. ^ "Past exhibitions". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  36. ^ "Leandro Soto". Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. 27 June 2013. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  37. ^ "2002 TRI Encore Report". Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  38. ^ "Mosquera Catalog". Issuu. 8 October 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  39. ^ "Main Gate of Mount Holyoke College". Collections Database: Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium. Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  40. ^ Fuentes González, Rubén (2015). Influencias Zen de las Pinturas Monocromas Orientales en Obras de los Artistas Cubanos Tomás Sánchez, Leandro Soto, y Rubén Fuentes (Tesis doctoral). Universitat Politècnica de València. doi:10.4995/Thesis/10251/53631.
  41. ^ Alvarez-Borland, Isabel (Spring 2007). ""De Palo pa' Rumba:" An Interview with Leandro Soto". Afro-Hispanic Review. 26 (1): 167–178. JSTOR 23055256.
  42. ^ Alvarez-Borland, Isabel (2007). ""De Palo pa' Rumba:" An Interview with Leandro Soto". Cross Works. College of the Holy Cross. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
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Leandro Soto
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