Mid-Career Artist Award

Lázaro Saavedra was born in Havana, Cuba in 1964. He is one of Cuba's foremost conceptual artists and painters whose work includes paintings and pen drawings, installations, videos and digital animation.

“Generally, I have been interested in mental massage before the visual, to exhibit on the walls of the mind. To promote art as a language, prioritizing, activating and reinforcing its cognitive and communicative functions. The artistic creation as a form of visual thought, visualization and questioning of the individual and collective consciousness, a tool of my own thinking and for the thought of others. Using a simple language, a formal and material eclecticism, a playful tone that can trigger a reflective smile or an ethical questioning. Many times ideas have moved exploring both the social and institutional criticism of art, as well as points of conceptual, morphological or process-related interconnection between what is considered artistic and not artistic.” – Lázaro Saavedra.

The artist’s works are held in the collections of The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, both in Canada; CIFO art Foundation in Miami, USA; The Daros Latinamerica Collection, based in Zurich, Switzerland; The Ludwig Foundation in Germany; The Farber Foundation, in USA; The Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse, France; the The National Museum of Fine Arts in Cuba; among others.

Photo courtesy of Havana Club.

A Look Inside:

Born │

Havana, Cuba, 1964. Lives and works in Cuba.

Education│

Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, Cuba (1988); Academia de Artes Plásticas San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba (1983); Escuela Elemental de Artes Plásticas “20 de Oct”, Havana, Cuba (1979). 

Awards│

Daunia Land Art. Foggia, Italy, (2017); Premio Nacional de Curaduría por la exposición personal Base y Superstructura (2014), (2015); Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas 2014, given by the CNAE, (2014); Mención en Premio de Curaduría 2014 por la exposición personal: Expo sin concepto (2013) given by the CNAE, (2014).

Selected Exhibitions │

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

“Soy mi cueva”, Art intervention during Daunia Land Art event. Foggia, Italy (2017). | “Pensamiento Visual”, George Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Gallery. Paris, France (2016). | “Base/Superestructura”, Wifredo Lam Centre of Contemporary Art. Havana, Cuba (2016). |”Añejo 27”, Galiano Gallery (6to Salón de Arte Contemporáneo). Havana, Cuba (2015).| “Cortocircuitos”, Casa Daros. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2013). | “Expo sin concepto”, Habana Gallery. Havana, Cuba (2013).

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

“Paint like I move”, Les Abattoirs - Frac Occitanie Museum. Toulouse, France (2017) | “Adiós Utopía Arte en Cuba desde 1950”, The Museum of Fine Arts. Texas, USA (2017); Walker Art Center. Minneapolis, USA (2018). | “Toda percepción es una interpretación: You Are Part of It.”, (Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection), CIFO Art Space. Miami, USA (2016). | “Cuba. Tatuar la Historia”, PAC, Pabellón de Arte Contemporáneo. Milan, Italy (2016). | “Choises Paris/ 2016”, Exposición Palais de Tokyo. Paris, France (2016). | “Ficción y Fantasía”, Casa Daros. RJ, Brasil (2015). | “Iconocracia”, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2015). | “Luminato Festival’s”, Proyecto público. Toronto, Canada (2015) |”Pez Peo”, Wifredo Lam Centre of Contemporary Art (12th Havana Biennal). Havana, Cuba (2015). | “The Spaces Between: Contemporary Art from Havana”, traveling show: Bildmuseet, Umea University, SE-901 87. Umea, Sweden (2015). |“Memorias de la obsolescencia”, MIS (Museum of Image and Soundo de Imagen y Sonido). Sao Paulo, Brazil (2014). | “Cuban Contemporary Perspectives # 1”, Bianconi Gallery. Milan, Italy (2014) | “Eppur si muove”, Torrione Passari Molfetta. Bari, Italy (2014). | 31st Biennale of Sao Paulo. SP, Brasil (Sep 6 – Dic. 7, 2014). | “INTERMISSION: Video Cubano @ MOCA Cleveland”, Project by de The 8th Floor of NY, MOCA. Cleveland, Ohio, USA (2014). | “Art Brussels 2014”. Brussels, Belgium (April 18-21, 2014). | “Prácticas Globales, Arte de Latinoamérica en la Colección Ella Fontanals-Cisneros”, Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, USA (Mar 19- Jul 13, 2014). | “The Spaces Between: Contemporary Art from Havana”, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada (Ene 10-Abr 13, 2014), traveling show: Bildmuseet, Umea University, SE-901 87. Umea, Sweden (Feb 8-Abr 19, 2014). (2013).