Yasiel Elizagaray
[ BIO - STATEMENT - ARTIST CV ]
BIO.
Yasiel Elizagaray Cárdenas (Sancti Spíritus, 1987) is a Cuban visual artist and painter who lives and works in Havana. He currently works at his Pulsión Studio, located in Vedado, Havana, Cuba.
His main solo exhibitions have been Animas, at Artis 718 Gallery, and Aura, at Villa Manuela Gallery of UNEAC, both in Havana, as well as Pulsiones, in collaboration with Nuno Sacramento Gallery, in Portugal. Outside Cuba, he has participated in exhibitions in Portugal, Spain, the United States, Mexico, and Italy. He recently participated in the exhibition Grandi Artisti Cubani, at the Palazzo della Cancelleria, in the Holy See. He has participated in Art Madrid, Art Miami, Art Wynwood, and Expo Chicago fairs.
Statement.
His work uses portraiture as a reflective catalyst for the human condition in the face of seemingly abstract social and existential issues. Expressionism is his main pictorial tool, overflowing with extreme anatomical variations and the symbolic alteration of the chromatic palette. Elizagaray is a painter of signs, ruminations, traumas and, above all, narratives born within a personal framework that extend to a prevailing and historically recurrent sense of an era, with universal rather than local intention. He embodies expressionism as a language of the subversive, of tropological discomforts with his time and place.
Artist CV.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
2005
Vladislav Volkov School of Art Instructors, Bachelor of Arts and Humanities, Art Instructor, Plastic Arts specialty.
He currently works as an independent artist in his OpenStudio Elizagaray in Trinidad, Cuba.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2026
DDR ART GALLERY, Madrid (Spain).
"Portraits for an Insomniac Painter", Curated by Fernando Castro Flórez.
2025
Expo Chicago. Curated Exhibition. Contemporary Art Fair, Chicago, United States.
Pulsiones. Nuno Sacramento Contemporary Art, Portugal.
2024
Aura. Villa Manuela Gallery, UNEAC, Havana, Cuba.
2023
Animas. Artis718 Gallery, Miramar, Playa, Havana.
2019
My Candidates. Provincial UNEAC Gallery, Sancti Spíritus.
Looking at the void. Benito Ortiz Gallery, Trinidad.
2018
Faces. Oscar Fernández Morera Gallery.
2015
Silences. Larios Gallery, Camagüey City.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Grandi Artisti Cubani, Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome, Italy
Where there is fire. Pulsión Estudio, Havana, Cuba.
Art Madrid. Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain.
The lightness of being. Arte Morfosis Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
Integrated Bodies. LOLO Studio, Matanzas, Cuba.
2024
Kosmos. Artis718 Gallery, collateral to the Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.
Painting always alive. José Martí National Library, Havana, Cuba.
Art Miami. Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, United States.
25th anniversary of CERNUDA ARTE. Coral Gables, United States.
Art Palm Beach. Contemporary Art Fair, Florida, United States.
Art Wynwood. Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, United States.
Art Madrid. Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain.
Expo Chicago. Contemporary Art Fair, Chicago, United States.
Open Studio Inauguration. Collateral to the Havana Biennial, Cuba.
2023
Post-it. Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
Art Madrid. Contemporary Art Fair, Madrid, Spain.
Art Miami. Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, United States.
I Am. MAXIMA Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2022
Arroz con Mango+habanero, Covarrubias Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
Arroz con mango. Centro Hispanoamericano Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
Post-it. Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
Grand Contemporary Art Auction, Collage Habana Gallery and 10/10 Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
Contemporary Art Sale Exhibition. Hotel Palco, Collage Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
2017
Cuba Station. National Council of Plastic Arts. Havana.
2016
Vendome-Cuban Art.
The Crossing – Gallery Q Street Fine Art 2015 Q Street N. W. Washington, DC 20009.
E-Moderne Gallerie 166 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19106.
Chasen Galleries 3554 West Carey Street Richmond, VA.
Baltimore Art, Antique & Jewelry Show Booth No.1424. Baltimore Convention Center One Pratt Street. Baltimore, MD 21201
GALLERY REPRESENTATION
Cernuda Arte, Miami, United States (2023-)
Nuno Sacramento Galería, Ídhavo, Portugal (2023-)
DDR Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain (2025-)
Acacia Gallery, Havana, Cuba (2025-)
Bettini & Co Gallery, Italy (2025-)
Collections.
Cernuda Collection, United States
Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets Collection, Cuba
Luciano Méndez Collection, Spain-Cuba
Eriberto Bettini Collection, Italy-Holy See
Viñas-Gil Collection, Spain-Cuba
Bernardo Quetglas Collection, Spain-Cuba
In addition to other private collections in Cuba, Spain, Italy, United States, Germany, Portugal, Denmark, France, Canada, Mexico, England.
Awards, scholarships & artistic residencies.
AWARDS
Work from the series "Looking at the void" in a private collection of the Belgian Embassy in Cuba. 2019
Award for Excellence. CFA Artist of the Year Award.
2018
Collateral Award, at the I Fayad Jamís Visual Arts Biennial, Sancti Spíritus.
Second Prize in the XXVIII Edition of the City Salon, Alejo Carpentier Gallery, Camagüey.
2017
Second Prize, at the 30th edition of the Fidelio Ponce de León Visual Arts Salon, Camagüey.
Collateral Award, at the 30th edition of the Fidelio Ponce de León Visual Arts Salon, Camagüey. EJO Project.
2015
Mention in the Fidelio Ponce de León Visual Arts Salon, Camagüey.
Works by Yasiel Elizagaray can be seen at:
DDR ART GALLERY, Calle de la Encomienda 21, 28012, Madrid.
Tel. +34 659819791
