Richard Somonte

Richard Somonte Llerena (Havana, 1991). He graduated as a painter from the San Alejandro Academy in 2010. In the same city, he held several solo exhibitions such as "Somonte" (2017) and "Architecture of God" (2018) at the Carmen Montilla Gallery in Havana. He also participated in various group exhibitions, including Garaje 33:08 (Alternative Space) in 2016, "PIPOL" at the Artis gallery (2017), "The place in how good it is" at Galería Habana (2019). In 2019, he permanently moved to Spain (Madrid) where he presented his work for the first time at the My name's Lolita Art Gallery ("Line and Mountain") in February 2021. In October 2022, he founded the "Somonte painting studio" in Madrid together with Beatriz Bullón, where he currently works. Three exhibitions have been inaugurated in this space to date: "Dos de espadas" with Maikel Sotomayor (May 2023), "Normally" with Julio Llopiz-Casal (December 2023), and "Satisfyer animal" with Vahid Sharifian (March 2024), in addition to participating in the AQUÍ Platform of Contemporary Art (September 2023).

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Statement by Richard Somonte:

I graduated in 2010 from the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts in Havana. My thesis was the result of a research process on the Landscape genre in the 18th century, mainly focusing on the Hudson River School and English Romanticism. I was interested in their influence on the representation of the genre in Cuban painting. Artists such as Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Frederick Edwin Church, Thomas Moran, John Constable, and Turner were the main subjects of study.

I have always been interested in artistic production that falls under what we know as Romanticism. After reviewing the representation of mountains, I began studying the figuration of the great masters of that period, such as Delacroix, Géricault, Goya, etc.

Understanding the history of painting as consecutive cycles of Pragmatism-Idealism, Romanticism would be the last great Idealist cycle, followed by a pragmatic period that ranges from Realism to Impressionism, which in turn is succeeded by another idealistic period that clearly extends from Post-Impressionism to Contemporary painting, with its exceptions.

After my definitive journey to Spain, I began to study the Spanish School, focusing on the close link between Spanish popular traditions and Cuban history and identity.

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