BIOGRAPHY

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Orlando Naranjo (b.1937)

Las Villas, Cuba

 

Orlando Naranjo is a self-taught painter born in Calabazal de Sagua, Las Villas, Cuba. The artist is inspired by colorful palette's full of energy and giddy transparency of the Cuban geography, using reds, yellows, browns, and blues, dazzling in his paintings, to remind the world of the splendors which we live in and the vibrant substance that we are. The artist also uses, flowers, fruits, forests, animals, rivers and women, all inspired by poetry with a spell of the pristine, from an unpolluted environment , all expressed on his paintings with a sense of security, enjoyment and attractive reality, with in the perfection of his work.

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Naranjo won his first drawing contest in 1952 with a scholarship in Washington DC, USA. At a young age he moved to Havana where he participated in his first collective exhibition in 1967 and later his first solo exhibition in 1970, he also participated in numerous collective and solo exhibitions through out Cuba and the United States. Naranjo's works can be found in various galleries throughout the United States. Naranjo's paintings are currently held in private collections in Spain, Poland, Cuba, Venezuela, former Soviet Union and the United States. In the fall of 2012 he was one of the painters chosen to participate in Fans Forever at the Miami Dade College Museum of Art, a unique exhibition featuring artist-designed fans by prominent artist of Cuban descent. Through out his career, his work has been exhibited beside renowned Master painters such as: Wilfredo Lam, Amelia Peláz, Rener Portocarrero, Mario Carreño, Gina Pillón, Mariano Rodriguez, Cundo Bermudez and Servando Cabrera Moreno.

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

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​2009 

La Bodeguita Miami, Miami, Florida

2003 

Eliassons Art Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida

1979 

Liceo Habana Centro Gallego, Havana, Cuba

1979 

Dept de Arte Seccional de Cultura, Havana, Cuba

1978  Galeria de Arte de Ministerio de Educacion, Havana Cuba

​1971 

Galeria de Arte del Ministerio de Salud Publica, Havana, Cuba

 

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS

       

2019 

La Galeria Fine Art, Miami, Florida

2018  

Miami Lakes Town Hall, Miami Lakes, Florida

2018 

La Galeria Fine Art, Miami, Florida

2018 

Frame on Wheels, Miami, Florida

2018 

Santa Fe Colonial Gallery, Miami, Florida 

2017 

La Galeria Fine Art, Miami, Florida

​2017 

Cuban Nostalgia, Plaza de los Artistas, Miami, Florida

2016 

Santa Fe Colonial Gallery, Miami, Florida 

2009 

Artbox Auction “Union Bank”, Coconut Grove, Florida

2008 

Bodeguita Miami, Miami, Florida

2007 

GDS Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida

2006 

Artbox Auction “Bank of America”, Coral Gables, Florida

2003 

Eliassons Art, Coral Gables, Florida

2003 

Fraga Gallery, Miami, Florida

2002 

Latin Brush Strokes Gallery, Naples, Florida

2001 

Latin American art Museum, Miami, Florida

1999 

GDS Fine Art, Coral Gables, Florida

1999 

Nova Art Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida

1999 

Sea Coast Towers, Miami, Florida

1998 

The Wirtz Gallery, Miami, Florida

​1998 

I've Been Framed Gallery, Miami, Florida

1997 

Galeria Amalia Mahoney, Chicago, Illinois

1996 

InterArte of America, Miami, Florida

1991 

Artist Pro Genesis II, Miami, Florida

1989 

ACCA 89, Miami, Florida

1984 

ACCA 84, Miami, Florida

1980 

Salon Nacional de Dibujo, Havana, Cuba

1976 

Salon Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, Matanzas, Cuba

1973 

Salon Nacional de Dibujo, Havana, Cuba

1970 

Galeria Foxa Vedado, Havana, Cuba

1969 

Galeria INIT 2 y 19, Havana, Cuba

1968 

Galeria INIT 2 y 19, Havana, Cuba

 

Renowned Cuban poet, novelist and playwright, Reinaldo Arenas wrote a pictorial on Naranjo saying: "Un cuadro de Naranjo es una invitacion que incita" (A painting by Naranjo is an invitation that provokes).