The Shrine by Armando Mariño

Armando Mariño (CU)
The Shrine
October 25 – November 22 2024

Galleri Christoffer Egelund proudly presents “The Shrine” by Armando Mariño, the artist’s fourth solo show at the gallery. Armando Mariño’s masterful combination of color and darkness, abstraction and figuration can be experienced at Bredgade 75 in Copenhagen from October 25th until November 22nd 2024.

Armando Mariño (b. 1968) has lived in both France, The Netherlands, and the USA, making him a truly international artist. However, it is his childhood in Cuba which had the most profound impact on his paintings which utilize the power of both figurative and abstract elements, and which are filled with symbolic meanings centering on the self, on art and on the right to be free.

The history of Cuba is more tumultuous that those of most other countries. Together with Hispaniola and Bahamas, Cuba was one of the first islands on which Christopher Columbus set foot in 1492. Over the course of the following century, the island was conquered by the Spanish, and like most of the islands of the Caribbean Sea and Middle- and South America, it was transformed into a Spanish colony. Around the year 1600, the native population, the Ciboney, Arawak and Taino peoples, were close to extinction. Because of its favorable position in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, Cuba had a central position in the Triangular Trade, and during the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, more than 600.000 enslaved Africans were transported to Cuba to act as forced labor at the many plantations which produced mainly sugar, tobacco and coffee. In 1898 Cuba became an American protectorate – and in 1902 it gained its independence, becoming an independent republic. However, the USA still had a lot of say when it came to foreign affairs and finances. After decades of governments increasingly marked by corruption, the Cuban Revolution broke out in 1959. Led by Fidel Castro, the revolution introduced Communist rule in Cuba. It was in the volatile climate of the revolution that Armando Mariño grew up. During the Cuban Revolution, there was no room for personal opinions or personal expression – especially if they went against those of the Communist government. While Armando and his parents, both scientists, did not believe in God, his grandmother and aunt were Catholics. In secret, the two of them built a Catholic altar at the back of their house – an act of defiance, since the government enforced an Atheist world view. Adorned with glittering gold, images of saints and kitschy religious objects, the altar became an art installation to the young Armando – a symbol of rebellion, and the fight for the right to have your own opinions.

The fight against oppression is one of the key elements of “The Shrine”. On the monumental canvases, the epitome of Western art emerges: The marble statuary of Ancient Greece, with its idealized realism which has been admired and copied for two millennia. We usually look at this type of art in grandiose surroundings – in the great art museums or in public space, surrounded by imposing architecture. But in Armando Mariño’s works the cool marble of the Greek sculptures is not the center of attention. Numerous traditional African masks and sculptures flock around the white sculptures, closing in on them and encroaching on their space as if to say “We’re here, too!”. Throughout art history, African and Oceanian art have been great sources of inspiration for Western artists. Especially during the early 20th century, the stylized, graphical shapes of African art spoke to artists like Picasso and Braque, who had been exposed to them at the then quite newly established ethnographical museums. With the aid of the stylized, geometrical shapes of African masks, they created an entirely new painting style: Cubism, which focused on pure, geometrical shapes and the flatness of the canvas. Paving the way for the propagation of abstract art, Cubism is one of the most influential art movements in history – and thus, we owe a large part of the development of Western art to the stylized shape language of African art – a fact which Armando Mariño emphasizes in such a visually impactful way in “The Shrine”.

With its fresh and vibrant Cuban colors, and its masterfully painted subjects, the art of Armando Mariño is thus both visually impressive and philosophically profound. It shows us that even after the age of installation art, painting still has much to say and much to teach us.

Armando Mariño (b. 1968, Cuba) lives and works in New York. He graduated from the Escuela Provincial de Arte “Joaquín Tejada” in Santiago de Cuba, 1987; Jose Varona Pedagogical Institute, Havana 1992 and from Rijksakademie Van Beldeende Kunsten, Amsterdam 2005. He has exhibited widely in galleries and museums in Europe, USA, Africa and Cuba. His works are represented in major private and public collection around the world including Deutsche Bank Collection; Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection, US; Coca-Cola Foundation, Spain; 21cMuseum, Kentucky, US; Centro Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba; ASU Art Museum, Arizona, US; Arttoteek Den Hagg, Nederland; National Museum of Valjevo, Serbia; University of Virginia Art Museum, US; Marcelino Botín Foundation, Spain; Howard Farber Collection, New York; Colección Berardo Museo de Arte Moderna, Sintra, Portugal; The Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami, FL and The Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, MA, USA. Furthermore, Mariño has been awarded The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2011 and The Christopher Reynolds Foundation grant in 2010.

Join us at the exhibition opening and meet the artist at Bredgade 75 on October 25th 2024 from 16:00 to 19:00. For further information and sales requests, please contact the gallery at: hello@christofferegelund.dk or at +45 33 93 92 00. Visit us at Bredgade 75, DK-1260 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday 15:00-18:00, Saturday 12:00-16:00, or by appointment.