Manuel Mendive Hoyos
Mendive Hoyos, Manuel, was born in Havana, on December 15, 1944. He graduated from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in 1962. He also studied at the Department of Ethnology and Folklore, of the Cuban Academy of Sciences, and of Art History at the Faculty of Humanities, School of Letters, of the University of Havana.
A painter of great Cuban origin, with a strong expression of African roots, especially the Yoruba pantheon, this artist mixes various techniques, styles and colors, on varied supports and textures. Canvas, wood, animal skin and even the human body itself, serve to unleash the creativity of his extraordinary myths and pictorial narratives.
At just eleven years old, he won a prize in a children’s painting contest in Japan and has subsequently received countless awards, such as the National Drawing Salon (Havana, 1967); that of the May Hall (Paris, 1967); that of the II International Painting Festival Cagnes-sur-Mer (France, 1970); the Alejo Carpentier Medal from the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba (Havana, 1988); the National Prize for Plastic Arts (Havana, 2001), and the UNESCO Five Continents medal (2009).
About him, Rogelio Martínez Fouré expressed: “It is difficult to classify Mendive’s work within a specific school or trend. “It is not symbolist or primitive, in the European sense.” More than a painter, he is a creator, a term that allows us to encompass the painter, draftsman, sculptor, installationist, engraver, muralist, set designer, designer and performance artist that is Mendive. According to the opinion of Israel Castellanos: “Creator of a very personal universe and style, inhabited by orishas, deities fused with nature and illuminated by a lavish imagination, Mendive is a kind of representational demiurge who in a certain way has attended to the signs left for those two great milestones of so-called Afro-Cuban art: Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) and Roberto Diago (1920-1957).”
Personal Exhibitions
2005: Exhibition Feeding the Spirit, the Light, the Ancestors, Oludumare, the most beautiful, Gary Nader Gallery, Coral Gables, United States of America.
2005: “Mother Africa” Series, African Culture Day, “Casa de la Cultura de Angola” Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
2004: Exhibition of Modern Cuban Art, Athens, Greece.
2003: The Ancestors, orisha, nature and thought, Museum of the Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2003: Social, intellectual and chic, Biarritz, France.
2002; Las Aguas, everyday life and thought, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.
2001: Shangó and Life, La Recova Exhibition Hall, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.
2001: Shangó and Life, Sa Nostra Culture Center, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2001: Capitol Cultural Center, Cáceres, Spain.
2000: Santa Bárbara-Shangó in our Lives, Güines Universal Art Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
2000: The Birds and the Fish, Latin American Gallery, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba.
1999: Sculpture Exhibition, Rum Museum, Havana, Cuba.
1999: Gary Nader Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America.
1998: Villa de Chanteclerç, Fort-de-France, Martinique.
1998: Andy Jllich Gallery, Switzerland.
1997: Joan Guaita Art Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
1997: El Mundo del Arte Gallery, Paris, France.
1997: Museum of Colonial Art, Havana, Cuba.
1996: Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.
1996: National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica.
1996: Arte Actual Gallery, Santiago de Chile, Chile. 1995: La Acacia Gallery, Havana, Cuba.
1995: Fernando Quintana Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia.
1994: El Mundo del Arte Gallery, Paris, France.
1993: Expositum Gallery, Mexico City, D.F, Mexico.
1992: El Mundo del Arte Gallery, Paris, France.
1991: XXI International Biennial of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
1990: Civic Gallery, Cavour Square, Padua, Italy.
1989: Nesle Gallery, Paris, France.
1989: SEIBU Group, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
1988: The October Gallery, London, Great Britain.
1988: Budapest Ethnographic Museum, Hungary.
1988: XLIII Venice Biennale, Italy.
1987: For the Seeing Eye, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.
1987: Museum of Contemporary Art, Panama City, Panama.
1986: Conversing with the Fish, Latin American Cultural Space Gallery, Paris, France.
1984: Plaza Vieja Gallery, Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets, Havana, Cuba.
1982: ORTH Gallery, Nuremberg, Federal Republic of Germany.
1982: Iwalewa House, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
1982: Mpapa Gallery, Lusaka, Zambia.
1982: Traveling exhibition through Zambia, Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique.
1981: Art Gallery, Moscow, USSR.
1980: Mendive: A Painter of the Wonderful Real, Gallery L, Havana, Cuba.
1975: National Museum of Tanzania, Tanzania.
1964: Art Center, Cathedral Plaza, Havana, Cuba.
Performances (Selection)
2004: Nature and the Body, Art Center, Romerías de Mayo, Holguín, Cuba.
2003: International Sexology Event, National Theater of Cuba, Havana, Cuba.
2003: Eighth Havana Biennial, La California Project, Havana, Cuba.
2002: Performance for the exhibition Las Aguas, everyday life and thought, National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba.
2001: Performance for the exhibition Shangó y la Vida, filmed in Manto Blanco, Lomas de la Peregrina, Tapaste, Havana.
2001: Performance for the exhibition Santa Bárbara-Shangó in our Lives, Universal Art Gallery, Güines, Havana.
2001: Body Painting exhibition Shangó and Life, Culture Center, Sa Nostra, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
2000: Inauguration of the Social, intellectual and chic exhibition, Rum Museum, Havana, Cuba.
2000: The Birds and the Fish, Latin American Gallery, Casa de las Américas, Havana, Cuba.
1999: African Odyssey Event, John F. Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., United States of America.
1999: International Contemporary Art Fair, FIAC’99, Paris, France.
1998: Water, light, shadow, Villa Chanteclerç, Fort-de-France, Martinique.
1997: ARCO’97 International Art Fair, Joan Guaita Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain.
1997: It looks like Happiness, VI Havana Biennial, Wifredo Lam Center, Museum of Colonial Art, Havana, Cuba.
1997: Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena de Indias, Plaza San Pedro Claver, Colombia.
1996: Deep Waters, Arte Actual Gallery, Santiago de Chile, Chile.
1996: Heads and Hearts, Performance and Multimedia, La Acacia Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 1995 Caribbean Festival 2000, Champeret Space, Paris, France.
1994: Deep Waters, Cenvantino International Festival, Alhándiga Museum, Guanajuato, Mexico.
1994: V Havana Biennial, Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba.
1993: First Ouidah’93 Vodum Arts and Culture Festival, Benin.
1992: El Mundo del Arte Gallery, Paris, France.
1992: Bringing Out the Bad, Neslé Theater, Paris, France.
1991: Shangó, inauguration of the Latin American Memorial, Sao Paulo, Brazil.