Carlos Quintana

Carlos Quintana was born in Havana in 1966 and holds degrees from the San Alejandro School of Fine Arts and the Superior Institute of Industrial Design in his hometown. Despite being influenced by renowned artists like Schnabel, Baselitz, Kiefer, and Kippenberger, Quintana did not attain immediate recognition in the Cuban art scene. This was because he took an unconventional approach to painting that did not involve working on collaborative projects, making him somewhat of a "underground" artist.

Quintana's paintings are characterized by unsettling codes and discourses, as he is almost fixated on capturing the harsh realities of daily life, including violence and filth. He frequently represents historical art scenes to symbolize contemporary conflicts, and his use of a vivid color palette imparts a symbolic character infused with cultural allusions to his work.