Osy Milián - Zapata Gallery

Osy Milián (Osailys Ávila Milián) is a Cuban artist born in Havana in 1992. She lives and studies in Havana, Cuba. She is a graduate of the Cuban arts school system, from elementary, at José A. Díaz Peláez elementary art school (2006), to the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts (2011), and holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) in 2016. The most recent exhibitions she has participated in are The grays (The gallery Lounge, Town Center at Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2021); North (198 Allen Street, New York, United States, 2020); C’est Moi, C’est Nous (Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2019); Fuga (Galería Artis 718, Havana, Cuba 2018); and Fragments (Artemorfosis Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland, 2018). She has exhibited in national and international solo (15) and group shows (70); and has been awarded in various competitions, including the First UNESCO Prize (XVI International Biennial, Kanazawa, Japan, 2007); First Prize at Passion for Freedom 2012, United Kingdom, (being Ambassador of La Paz in London, 2013); Acquisition Prize (Contest Post-it 2, Triangle, Havana, 2014). Her works are in public collections such as the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, Spain; Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; Sara M. Vance Waddell Private gallery, Cincinnati, United States and private collections in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Panama, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

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Statement:

Systems work according to certain inexorable paradigms that exceed us, frequently in a pragmatic and brutal way. Sometimes, the best option is to wait statically, go with the flow. I redefine the escape as the impossibility to flee; questioning issues such as stagnation, the eternal wait and the dilation of time.

The characters in the paintings reflect a strange immutability and a peaceful persistence. Inactive and static, awaits the occurrence of some event, a change of external origin that reverses their situation. I propose iconographic combinations among characters, birds and objects in a kind of theatrical setting. On the contrary, birds glorify statism, failed attempts to overcome heights.

In parallel, I use the concepts of science because they allow the establishment of similarity relationships among the different systems and man’s life. The intermolecular behaviors represent an analogy of human relationships, related to political systems, their stability and resulting revolutions.

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Lianet Martínez Pino is a visual artist born in Cienfuegos, Cuba. She graduated in 2012 with a specialization in Painting from the National Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro” in Havana. In 2019, she completed her studies at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), where she received the distinction of Most Creative Graduate. Since 2011, she has taken part in numerous exhibitions both in Cuba and abroad. Shortly after graduating, she was invited by Nuno Sacramento Contemporary Art Gallery to the artist residency “Mi casa es tu casa,” which concluded with the two-person exhibition “Alquimia” in Aveiro, Portugal. In 2012, 2015, 2019, and 2022 she was selected to participate in the Havana Biennial, where she presented large-scale public works. Her work is part of important collections in the United States, Puerto Rico, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Cuba.In 2024, her work was selected within the curatorial section “Ejes,” together with Galería Servando, for the ZONAMACO International Art Fair at the Citibanamex Center in Mexico. That same year, she was chosen to represent Cuba at the Artomatic art event in Washington, D.C., USA. In 2025, two of her works were selected to participate in the ZONAMACO International Art Fair as part of the Galería Habana booth. She was invited to take part in the two-person exhibition “Alquimia de una Isla” held at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) in the United States. In March of the same year, she represented Cuba at the Osaka International Art Fair in Japan. In August, she was selected for the Unlimited Art Residency in New York, supported by the Cuban Artists Fund and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which culminated in the “Blossom” Open Studio. On October 11, she presented her solo exhibition “Espacio Liminal” at Zapata Gallery in Miami, United States. At the end of October, she was invited by the Metropolitan Academy of Art of Chile to give a lecture on her work titled The Body as Shield: Matter, Identity, and Memory. One of her works (Encuentro) is currently on view at FotoFac Gallery as part of the group exhibition “Puertas al Ingenio” at Fábrica de Arte. Also at the end of October, she will be participating with one of her works in the exhibition “Paisaje bajo Sospecha” at Picci Fine Arts Gallery in Mexico City, Mexico.She is currently represented by Génesis Galerías de Arte, working within this group with Galería Habana in Havana, Cuba, and by Zapata Gallery in Miami, United States.

Lianet’s work is characterized by the use of multiple media, scales, and techniques. It includes paintings, drawings, photographs, collages, and sculptural or installation structures whose processes of reference and meaning transcend the two-dimensional plane. It is through this methodology that she channels her ideas. These stem from personal experiences—her own or others’—in dialogue with everyday contexts and broader experiences that inform and shape her working process.