Face to Face

Armando Marino  “Face to Face” solo exhibition at janinebeangallery Salon

February 2nd – April 13th, 2024, opening reception on February 2nd from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m

We would say that in these recent paintings, Mariño is looking to his previous works back in the nineties (in his opinion the world hasn’t changed so much after all) and all the subjects he used to discuss back then are still present but now with a fresh pair of eyes and a completely renovated, mixed and open free technique. These new works differ from the ones in the past on many levels, for example, in the materiality, in the way he applies the oil, from thick to thin, from flat to standing, from liquified to dry brushstrokes, in the juxtaposition of smooth and rough, the bent perspective, the direct application of the color, the multilayer and so on. This is the result of years of experimentation and changes influenced by several artists, travels and tendencies. There is not one way of painting like there is not one way to approach or address the issues or conflicts that the painting highlights.
By using parody, pastiche, and a vast repertoire of images from magazines, the internet, books, and the history of art his work offers a unique and sarcastic approach to the painting as a space of power and exclusion, while at the same time, he’s tackling unsettling issues about race, sex, human trafficking, and cultural identity. The result is a confrontational and controversial work that exposes the complexity of human relations and cultural interactions.
His works are deeply referential and difficult to label. Coming from a rich multicultural background (he’s originally from Cuba) and moving and living in different countries he is not afraid to operate outside the “box” that usually labels for commercial reasons the artist as black, Cuban, or afro-descendant.
Mariño carefully appropriates, reorganizes and recontextualizes imagery from different sources to exacerbate or make any conflicts visible. In his paintings conventions, traditions, categorization and influences are not a restriction. Au contraire they serve as a detonator to display a heterogeneous, multilayered and complex painting both in his subject and his technique, they are just the perfect exponent of the artist himself.

Armando Mariño was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, in 1968 into a family of scientists. His mother was a physicist and his father an engineer. Despite her desire to pursue a scientific career, he chose to pursue his love of art. He graduated from the Provincial School of Arts in Santiago de Cuba in 1987 and from the School of Art Education at the Enrique José Varona Higher Pedagogical Institute in Havana in 1992.
He claims that the most important lesson he learned from these Cuban artists was awareness of contemporary art theories and concepts. In 2004 and 2005 he studied at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Much of his work reflects social unrest, protests and rebellions. He uses bold, vibrant colors in multiple layers to build his oil or watercolor works. “Armando Marino filled his paintings in the late 1990s with corrosive historical fictions in which Cuban and European-Western art history collide.”

His works are exhibited in numerous galleries around the world, including Gericke + Paffrath Gallery, Coates & Scarry (London, UK) and Faction Art Project NY. The janinebeangallery presented the artist's works in 2017.