Richard Somonte - Zapata Gallery

Richard Somonte Llerena (Havana, 1991). He graduated as a painter from the San Alejandro Academy in 2010. In the same city, he held several solo exhibitions such as "Somonte" (2017) and "Architecture of God" (2018) at the Carmen Montilla Gallery in Havana. He also participated in various group exhibitions, including Garaje 33:08 (Alternative Space) in 2016, "PIPOL" at the Artis gallery (2017), "The place in how good it is" at Galería Habana (2019). In 2019, he permanently moved to Spain (Madrid) where he presented his work for the first time at the My name's Lolita Art Gallery ("Line and Mountain") in February 2021. In October 2022, he founded the "Somonte painting studio" in Madrid together with Beatriz Bullón, where he currently works. Three exhibitions have been inaugurated in this space to date: "Dos de espadas" with Maikel Sotomayor (May 2023), "Normally" with Julio Llopiz-Casal (December 2023), and "Satisfyer animal" with Vahid Sharifian (March 2024), in addition to participating in the AQUÍ Platform of Contemporary Art (September 2023).

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Statement by Richard Somonte:

I graduated in 2010 from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana. My thesis was the result of a research process on the Landscape genre in the 18th century, mainly focusing on the Hudson River School and English Romanticism. I was interested in their influence on the representation of the genre in Cuban painting. Artists such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Edwin Church, Thomas Moran, John Constable, and Turner were the main subjects of study.

I have always been interested in artistic production that falls under what we know as Romanticism. After reviewing the representation of mountains, I began studying the figuration of the great masters of that period, such as Delacroix, Géricault, Goya, etc.

Understanding the history of painting as consecutive cycles of Pragmatism-Idealism, Romanticism would be the last great Idealist cycle, followed by a pragmatic period that ranges from Realism to Impressionism, which in turn is succeeded by another idealistic period that clearly extends from Post-Impressionism to Contemporary painting, with its exceptions.

After my definitive journey to Spain, I began to study the Spanish School, focusing on the close link between Spanish popular traditions and Cuban history and identity.

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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.

Richard Somonte

Narciso

Oil on canvas

30 x 40 cm