Hollis Taggart is pleased to present a focused exhibition of paintings by Cuban-American artist Rafael Soriano (1920–2015). In Focus: Rafael Soriano will be on view at Hollis Taggart from May 16 through June 21, 2024.

One of the major Latin American artists of his generation, Rafael Soriano created paintings that foreground light as subject matter. This exhibition will highlight his mature work from the 1990s, in which glowing, mysterious forms, reminiscent of diaphanous curtains or biomorphic flesh, metamorphise and pulse against dark backgrounds.

Soriano was a key figure in introducing Concrete Art, a geometric style devoid of symbolism or representation, in Cuba. In the wake of the 1959 revolution, he fled to Miami in 1962 with his wife and young daughter, leaving behind a thriving artistic career in Cuba. Soriano stopped painting for two years out of exiled despair, but upon receiving a spiritual revelation in a dream, he began painting again and his style transformed from geometric abstraction into the oneiric, luminous gradations of light and shadow he came to be known for, and which are the subject of this exhibition.

Soriano's work is held in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin; Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University; Lowe Art Museum, Miami; Denver Art Museum; Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami; Museo de Arte Zea, Medellin, Colombia; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana, Cuba; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College; among others.

Press release courtesy Hollis Taggart.