Armando Mariño was born in 1968 in Santiago de Cuba. There, he completed elementary and high school at a school for the arts, and continued his studies in Havana at the High Pedagogical Institute, concentrating on Visual Arts Teaching and Art History.
Mariño has been a recipient of several important grants and residencies such as, Art Omi Residency (1998), Rijsakademie Fellowship in Amsterdam (2004), ISCP Brooklyn (2011), the Pollock Krasner Grant (2011) and the Bronx Museum Artist-in-Residence (2012), among others. His work has been included in a number of collective shows around the world such as, Der Global Komplez OK; Centrum fur Gegenwartskunst, Linz, Austria (2003); Catastrofe Minime; Museo de Nuoro, Cerdena, Italy (2003); VIII Bienal de la Habana (2003); Cuban AvantGarde: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Farber Collection at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Florida; Visiones Publicas; Pasiones Privadas; Contemporary Museum of Vigo, Spain (2008); Something and Something Else; Museum Van Bommel van Dam.Venlo Holland 2009 ,Without Mask. Contemporary Afro-Cuban Art. Johannesburg Art Gallery. South Africa 2010,Keloids.Matress factory Museum Pittsburgh (2010), El Museo del Barrio’s Biennal (S) Files 2011. Fifteen.Recent Adquisitions from the Deutsche Bank Collection.USA (2013), Skyline Adrift at Art Omi (2012). His work is also included in many private and public collections including the National Museum of Havana, Deutsche Bank Collection USA, Coca Cola Foundation in Spain, Shelley and Donald Rubin Collection, Howard Farber Collection, the Berado Collection in Portugal, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain, among others.
Armando Mariño will continue development of Sweet Dreams, an installation consisting of 20 to 25 hand-painted mattresses. Mariño renders a realistic portrait of notable politicians of the 20th century on each mattress including, Stalin, Milosevic, Malcom X, “Che” Guevara, Castro, Pinochet and Qaddafi, among others.
Click here to view images from Armando Mariño’s open showing.