Alain Pino is a multi-disciplinary conceptual artist who deftly crosses artistic borders between painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and sculpting. Addressing social and political events – seen both in his hometown Camagüey and beyond – Pino marries paintings and photography in his installations, using visuals from the news, public space, as well as historic archives.
Portraiture is a significant part of Pino’s practice. It allows him the exploration of human condition through hybridity of materials and disciplines. His focus is often the individual, featuring mysterious and strange-looking characters – often androgynous and planted in situations that are ambiguous – as it’s only through the individual that we can notice the social change in daily happenings.
He reflects on condition and issues of migration in an ongoing work Escape (2002-present) and Zona de selección (AÑO) (Selection Zone), a 26-feet-long installation where acrylic panels and aluminum pipes undulate as waves, crossing each other every certain distance thus mimicking the trajectory of the DNA. Photographs of different people with their mouth open, as if taking a breath of air, are printed on the plexiglass and are metal tubes pass through the mouths of those being portrayed. Here, Pino reflects on the migration through the sea and on the process of “natural selection” that is implied within surviving this experience.
Pino is a co-founder, with Niels Moleiro and Mario Miguel González (Mayito), of the artist collective The Merger. He remained in the group for eight years, departing in 2017.
Selected solo exhibitions and with The Merger include 2018 Brave New World, Toth Gallery, New York; 2016 Sacando Lascas Collage Art Gallery Havana, Cuba; Diacronias de un Puzzle Galería de Arte ARTIZAR Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain; The Merger Touchdown XII Bienal de La Habana The Merger Studio Gallery, Havana, Cuba; 2014 One Race, Hemingway House and Museum, The Council of Galleries of Key West, FL; National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba;
Selected group exhibitions include 2016 ¡Presente! Contemporary Cuban Art GX Gallery London, UK; Espacio en Blanco, Centro Cultural de España Havana, Cuba; La Madre de Todas Las Artes, Wilfredo Lam Contemporary Art Center Havana, Cuba; Growing-up in Neverland Scarfone/ Hartley Gallery University of Tampa, FL; Apuntes de Viaje, Fábrica de Arte Cubano Havana, Cuba; 2015 Viva a Arte Cubana Viva Espaço do Servidor da Câmara Annex II House of Representatives Brasilia, Brazil; Pabexpo La Bienal de La Habana Havana, Cuba; REM La Lavandería Havana, Cuba; 2014 Art & Fashion 2014 Museum of Fine Arts Havana, Cuba; Gyeongnam Art Museum Changwon South Korea; Without Masks, Museum of Anthropology at UBC Vancouver, Canada; La Factoría Havana, Cuba; The Weight of an Idea, Galería Habana Havana, Cuba; Art Attack, Galiano Gallery Havana, Cuba; 2013 Sejong Center Chamber Hall Seoul, South Korea; Bellarte Art Gallery Seoul, South Korea; Biennial of the South Panama City, Panama; Stealing Spirits, Fototeca de Cuba Havana, Cuba; 2012 ARA Art Center Seoul, South Korea; Dry Cleaning La Lavanderia Art Center Havana, Cuba; Pabexpo Havana Bienal Havana, Cuba; The Experimental Graphic Art Studio Havana, Cuba 2011; Uprooted Transmigrations Panamerican Art Projects Miami, FL; Yemayá Cultural Arts Center Madrid, Spain. For complete exhibition history check here.
Support: Alain Pino’ residency is made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Cuban Artists Fund.
