Josignacio

Josignacio (b. José Ignacio Sánchez-Rius, in Havana, Cuba, on October 24, 1963) is a Cuban Contemporary artist and author. He is among the most significant living contemporary Cuban and Latin American artists due to his career auction records, paint medium innovations, and association with notable cultural events, venues, and celebrity figures in the United States and Cuba.

He emerged in Cuba's controversial, "La Generacion de los 80s," the 80s generation of contemporary Cuban art, also referred to as New Cuban Art. This cultural decade in Cuba contrasted a country in transition, influenced artistic debates both at home and abroad, and began the generation's collaboration with “Volume 1"  - a commitment to non-government mandated artistic expression. They included Rubén Torres Llorca, José Bedia Valdés, Ricardo Rodriguez Brey, Juan Francisco Elso, Rogelio López Marín (Gory), Gustavo Pérez Monzón, José Manuel Fors, Leandro Soto Ortiz, Israel León, Tomás Sánchez and Carlos Alfonzo.

In the second half of the decade, other artistic groups were formed, including 4 x 4, Grupo Hexágono, Arte Calle, Grupo Provisional, the duet René Francisco Rodríguez and Eduardo Ponjuán González  and ABTV. Grupo Puré, another new wave of young artists, graduates of the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), included Ana Albertina Delgado Álvarez, Adriano Buergo, Ciro Quintana. Josignacio first gained artistic recognition in Cuba as a key figure of this period and was widely exhibited in Havana galleries during the 1980s.

In 1984, Josignacio created the "Plastic Paint Medium" of art by mixing epoxy resins with oil colors and other pigments, resulting in a hard, glossed, 3D finish, a method which would become his identifiable style. Josignacio is the first living contemporary Latin American artist to have an artwork surpass US$3 million at auction.

His work has been exhibited in Cuba, Europe, the Northeast United States, and South Florida.

Early life

Upbringing

Josė Ignacio Sánchez Rius was born on 24 October 1963 in Havana, Cuba. He was raised in Havana during the post-Revolution period. During his upbringing, Josignacio was acquainted with several prominent Cuban national figures in the creative arts. These included the artists René Portocarrero, Amelia Peláez, Felipe López, Mariano Rodriguez, Roberto Fabelo, and Gilberto Marino, many of whom had established international profiles and several of which, most notably Portocarrero, would also mentor him with painting lessons. He also knew famed Cuban ballerina and choreographer Alicia Alonso due to his cousins being professional dancers. This exposure was highly formative to his creative development and influenced his own art career.

Early art career

He began to exhibit his work in 1979 at the age of sixteen. In 1983, Josignacio passed the admissions test for the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) at the age of twenty. Before attending, however, he has shaved his head as a change in his personal style and appearance to reflect entering a new stage in his life. This act was misinterpreted by the ISA administration as a protest against the Castro government, and he was subsequently banned from attending the institute. Following this incident, the artist was largely self-taught and supplementally educated through continued mentorships, as in his childhood.

Despite the reprimand, Josignacio chose to continue to pursue an art career. The following year, in 1984, he worked as a studio assistant for Martinez Anay and Andres Ugalde during their creation of a large scale public mural for the Sociedad de Educación Patriótico-Militar (SEPMI; the Military Patriotic Educational Society), the Cuban equivalent of the Boy Scouts. The agency was then directed by former Cuban Cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez. His involvement in this public art project proved to be a significant turning-point for his career as it was during that period that the artist first discovered a method of mixing epoxy resin with oil paint. This new medium took him two years to develop and refine through experimentation and would come to be known as the “Plastic Paint Medium.” Josignacio held first career solo exhibition, secured by his uncle Gerardo, at the Artistic and Literary Lyceum of the city of Regla on March 2, 1987. The exhibition was also notable for being the first global exhibition entirely composed of publicly displayed works in the Plastic Paint Medium. During this period of developing the Plastic Paint Medium, Josignacio was a frequent patron of the renowned Havana restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio and part of the community of artists that would gather there.

By 1988, Josignacio was a member of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), a Cuban youth arts institution, and his career began to become increasingly impacted by international Cuban politics. As an AHS member, he was commissioned that year to create the design for one of the participating floats in the Havana Carnival. Upon completion of his design and presenting it to the event commission, he was informed that his commission was canceled and the float design was recommissioned to fellow Cuban painter Manuel Mendive. This was precipitated by a controversial incident in which one of Mendive's paintings, ''El Pavo Real'', was burned by an anti-Castro activist following his purchase of the piece at an April 22 auction held in the former Cuban Museum of Art and Culture in Miami. In reaction to this incident, the Castro government reassigned Josignacio's commission to Mendive in a show of solidarity.

Nevertheless, by 1989 Josignacio had become professionally established with his work exhibited in eighteen Havana galleries between 1987 and 1989. A final career turning point occurred later that year as he was invited exhibit his art internationally in two venues in Mexico City: The Gallery of the National Auditorium and Centro Cultural Los Talleres in Coyoacán. The planned shows were ultimately cancelled on May 10, 1989, by the Castro government by way of the Cuban embassy in Mexico City. This latest incident prompted the artist relocate permanently to the United States on September 14, 1989, where he would become a naturalized American citizen.

Career in the United States

Upon relocating to the United States in 1989, Josignacio joined the South Florida Cuban diaspora in exile. There he quickly emerged as a major figure in Miami and Cuban exile culture and society. After becoming connected to Cuban fine art dealer Alfredo Martinez, Josignacio was introduced to his network and Martinez became a patron and supporter of his work. Martinez owned two prominent art galleries in Coral Gables: Marpad Gallery and Alfredo Martinez Gallery. Josignacio became a featured artist of both and would quickly establish himself in the American art market through the 1990s.

In 1991 Josignacio had a solo exhibition in Marpad Gallery and was then a featured artist in the annual Art Miami contemporary art fair, in which he would maintain a regular presence through 2007. The following year was a featured artist in Marpad Gallery's major collective exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the Discovery of America, held in April 1992. The exhibition featured 37 Latin American artists from Cuba, Costa Rica, Haiti, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Panama, as well as from Spain.

Josignacio experienced a pronounced career breakthrough in the United States by the mid-1990s. In 1996 he had a solo exhibition in Alfredo Martinez Gallery and participated in two prominent South Florida annual collective art exhibitions: Art Palm Beach and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale's 38th Annual Hortt Competition Exhibition, Florida's oldest juried art exhibition. In the latter Josignacio won the Best in Show award for which he was one of 80 featured artists exhibiting a total of 105 works chosen from a pool of over 1,300 submissions. His winning piece was the work ''The 3 O'Clock''. In 1997 he exhibited in the Liquid night club, a high-profile Miami nightclub of the 1990s, in an exhibition organized by close Madonna associates Ingrid Casares and Chris Paciello. Casares and Paciello would also organize and host three additional exhibitions for Josignacio that year at Risk, another of their night clubs.

In 2001 and 2002 he participated in the Cuba Nostalgia art fair and collective exhibition through Alfredo Martinez Gallery. The exhibitions featured other leading Cuban artists such as the Cuban Vangaurdia artists, Jose Maria Mijares, and Carlos Alfonzo.

From 2006 to 2010, Josignacio was the subject of three film documentaries. In 2013 he published his first novel, ''Las Lagrimas del Cocodrilo''.

The mid-2010s was another pivotal period in Josignacio's career. In 2015 he returned to Cuba for the first time in 25 years since emigrating to the United States. That same year he set the global auction record for the highest price achieved by a living Cuban artist with the sale of ''The Three Wisest Monkeys'' for US$720,000 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In March 2016 Josignacio set the global auction record for the highest price achieved by a living Latin American artist with the sale of ''The Music is Timeless'' (1989) for US$3,481,205.00 in London. This was also the first work by a living Latin American artist to surpass US$3 million at auction. Josignacio's ''Rostro'' (1989), sold for US$2,329,200.00 in London. This marked his second instance of reaching the multimillion-dollar threshold at auction and cemented the market value of his artwork in the 21st century. That year Josignacio returned once again to Cuba to display works from his ''Dancers'' series, at the request of his childhood friend, Cuban ballerina and choreographer Alicia Alonso. This was first time the series had been exhibited in Cuba. Among the works was a figurative painting of Alonso, which was exhibited at the International Ballet Festival in The National Ballet of Cuba in Havana.

In 2017 the artist developed three major new series of work: one of the Chinese Zodiac, one of Cuban national hero José Martí, and one of LGBT+ themed works in opposition to homophobia and transphobia. Each was unveiled and displayed in exhibitions centered on their respective themes.

In 2021 he was a featured artist participating in Art Basel Miami; this was the international art fair's first showing since the outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In 2024, Josignacio marked the 40th anniversary of his development of the Plastic Paint Medium by breaking a three year exhibiting hiatus and participating in the high profile ''Flora & Fauna'' exhibition, held in the former Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo. The exhibition was his first show in Tampa Bay and his first exhibition since 2021. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, ''Flora & Fauna'' also featured other notable artists including Adriano Nicot and Edel Alvarez Galban, and received coverage from Diario Las Americas, ''The Artisan Magazine'', as well as television coverage. Three of Josignacio’s well established nature themes series were on view: his ''Butterfly'', ''Flowers'', and ''Fish''.

Style and analysis

Josignacio's artwork is described as varyingly abstract, semi-abstract, and neofigurative. His works emphasize color over form and he typically works in large scale formats.

He best known for working in and pioneering the "Plastic Paint Medium," which he first developed in 1984. The medium uses clear epoxy resin mixed with color pigment which is then drip-poured unto surfaces to create forms. The resulting effect achieves a brilliance in color and shine Cuban art critic Yoel Almaguer de Armas compares to painted glass.

The term Plastic Paint Medium was first coined by Dr. Jose Antonio Portuondo who wrote in the catalog for Josignacio's first solo exhibition in 1987. In it, he described the use of epoxy resin as an “agglutinating medium” and called Josignacio the artistic representative of the “Plastic Era.” Its impact and avant-garde nature has been called “A revolution inside The Revolution” by Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez while art critic Leonel López-Nussa described it as “New-Ism.” Dr. Kenworth W. Moffett, former Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale Director, described the Plastic Paint Medium as "the result of the marriage of art and technology." Among the medium's practical advantages are that it is more durable against the elements as well as better resistant to the effect of UV light than standard oil and acrylic works.

Despite the "Plastic Era" associations of Josignacio's Plastic Paint Medium, there have also been psychological, philosophical, and anti-commercial statements found within his work. Like the Abstract Expressionists, his method engages in what he describes as a “dialog” with his works while creating them, allowing himself to be guided to a conclusion rather than tightly controlling the outcome. This approach prioritizes the unconscious over the conscious in the creating process. As such, he has stated that he is more interested in the organic abstract elements that emerge in his creative process than in the result, which allows for a continual discovery of new aspects to the works after completion. He has also incorporated abstracted ambiguous images in his art to contrast the superficial elements and encourage deeper psychological reflection from the viewer.

Among his most well-known and reported series of works are his auction record-breaking ''Guitar'' series, his various animal series, as well as more figurative representations of the human form.

His most recent works since the end of the 2010s further experiment with contemporary mediums, such as multimedia, sculptural, and three dimensional works that incorporate LED light.

Influences

Early Cuban abstract art, European art, and mid-century American art are significant influences in Josignacio's art. After 1960 and during Josignacio's upbringing, Cuban abstract art was scarce or considerably silenced on the island as a result of the Cuban Revolution. This contributed to the radical, avant-garde nature of the art emerging in Cuba during the 1980s. The 80s Generation group would coalesce around Galería Color-Luz, which was started just after Ms. Soldevilla returned from several years in Paris as Cuba's cultural attaché, bringing European influence. Her partner in the effort, Pedro de Oraá, an artist, poet and art critic, born in 1931, also wrote a short history of the group.

Josignacio was influenced by the Abstract Expressionists of the New York School (art), especially Jackson Pollock, from whom he originally saw the use of dripping and pouring paint onto canvases. However, instead of alkyd enamels that Pollack used, Josignacio used his "Plastic Paint Medium" technique of mixing epoxy resins with oil colors and other pigments. Dutch painter Karel Appel's faces and Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky's mix of colors were also special focuses. From Dutch-American Willem de Kooning. Josignacio learned the centered figure compositions Another influence of Abstract Expressionism is his use and strong incorporation of fluid, largescale color field backgrounds in his works. Josignacio was also influenced by his early exposure and mentorships from Cuban Vanguardia artists, such as René Portocarrero, and their use of color.

In addition to the formal elements of fine art movements and artists, the Josignacio has also cited other influences to his work outside visual art. These have included music (particularly in his ''Guitar'' series), human emotion, and the details within the natural world. In regards to nature, Josignacio has acknowledged using close-up images of fossil rocks, deep-sea flora and fauna, and outer space as references and inspiration for his work.

Recognition and legacy

Josignacio is best known for developing the Plastic Paint Medium, as well as for breaking auction records for living Cuban and Latin American artists. As his profile has expanded since beginning his career in the 1970s, Josignacio's artwork has been exhibited in major art markets in Europe, Cuba, and the United States including Havana, London, New York City, New Jersey, Miami, Coral Gables, Miami Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. This has included participation in international art fairs, exhibitions, and prominent venues including Art Palm Beach, Art Miami, Art Basel Miami, the Miami Design District, and the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale's Annual Hortt Competition Exhibition. His art is in the permanent collection of the Cuba's National Library, the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí. His artwork is also included within the private collections of the several most prominent figures of the 20th and 21st centuries across a range of fields. His collectors have included Madonna, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Andy Garcia, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, four past presidents of Mexico, and leading Latin American art collections including Jorge Mas Canosa, the Bacardi and Fanjul families, and Alfredo Martinez.

Josignacio's career has been covered by international media including Architectural Digest, ARTnews, The Miami Herald

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