If there is an image of a bull in a Cuban painting – often portrayed as a powerful, majestic symbol of struggle – chances are that the work has been created by Rafael Zarza who has recently won Cuba’s most prestigious award the National Visual Arts Prize for 2020. Lesbia Vent Dumois, president of the jury that awarded the prize, recognised Zarza’s accomplishments well beyond the genre of printmaking for which he is best known, to include installations, drawings and above all, painting and also his conceptual contributions, in terms of representation, questioning and re-creation of Cuban social and cultural life.

Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1944, Rafael Ángel Zarza González studied painting and printmaking at the San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts between 1959 and 1963, one of the country’s most prestigious art institutions. From 1965 to 1996, he was an active member of the Experimental Graphics Workshop (Taller Experimental de Gráfica) in Old Havana’s Cathedral Square, a vital hub for innovation in Cuban printmaking. Within that collective space, Zarza developed a distinctive visual language grounded in technical mastery and conceptual daring.

Throughout his career, Zarza has moved fluidly between painting, printmaking, graphic design, and illustration, but it is his graphic oeuvre—especially his recurring imagery of bulls and cattle—that has defined his artistic identity. The bull in Zarza’s work is not merely an animal; it is a metaphor for power, sacrifice, erotic tension, and defiance. Emerging in the politically charged 1960s, his prints and mixed-media pieces explored the symbolic intersections of strength and vulnerability, using the language of the bullfight to reflect on authority, domination, and resistance. His experimentation with lithography, collage, and overpainting blurred the boundaries between print and painting, fusing expression and critique.

In 2020, Zarza received the National Visual Arts Award of Cuba (Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas) in recognition of his lifetime contribution to Cuban art. His works are held in significant public and private collections and have been exhibited widely across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Today, Rafael Zarza stands as one of Cuba’s most enduring and provocative artistic voices—a creator whose visual allegories continue to question and celebrate the complex realities of identity, power, and freedom.

Time

Wednesday to Saturday
12 PM - 5 PM

Location

The Annex Gallery
1310 Pendleton Street
Cincinnati Ohio
45205