MANUEL MENDIVE AT LATIN ART CORE: ANCESTRAL RYTHMS, CONTEMPORARY VISIONS

A total of 46 works by Mendive will be exhibited, offering a comprehensive insight into the evolution of his creative vision. This new body of work marks a fresh chapter in his artistic journey: while still rooted in Afro-Cuban spirituality and Yoruba cosmology, Mendive’s latest pieces shine with a renewed focus on the joy of living and the harmonious union of the individual with nature. Filled with luminous color, symbolic gestures, and poetic storytelling, these paintings are a vibrant meditation on renewal, guidance, and the deep vitality of life.

“To enter the most recent pictorial offerings of Manuel Mendive (Havana, 1944) is to delve into a cosmogony where flesh and foliage pulse with the same breath. Color in these paintings seems to emanate as if the canvas were a living membrane, exhaling blues, ochres, and chlorophyll greens that gracefully interweave in a vibrato echoing life itself. Here, the bird does not merely perch on a branch —it is the branch. The man does not walk upon water—he is the water. The fish does not swim through the river—it embodies It”, writes Janet Batet at the exhibition’s catalogue.

 “My path towards mysticism and the search for happiness in art began at a very young age, influenced by family traditions, my mother, my connection with Afro-Cuban spirituality, my trips to Africa and my love for nature. That is why in my work, I have explored the relationship between the human being and the universe, using symbols and colors that evoke the sacred and the ancestral”, explains Manuel Mendive.

Mandive’s latest works reaffirm his role as a visionary who bridges ancestral knowledge and contemporary expression. His work is an invitation to reconnect with nature’s rhythms and the spiritual forces that shapes existence.  Manuel Mendive: With the new day the sun shines and leads us is not only a celebration of artistic vitality, but also a luminous reminder of the harmony that binds all living things.

During the exhibition’s opening –which will take place June 19^th– the artist will be present, allowing guests to personally engage with him.

Manuel Mendive (Cuba, 1944) is an internationally renowned Cuban visual artist. He explores the relationship between human beings' nature and the universe, using symbols and colors that evoke the sacred and the ancestral. He expresses feelings in a lyrical confluence of colors that invite the viewer to immerse themselves in a world of light and mystical beauty where nature takes center stage, taking us to the essence of mankind with the sun, the sky, the birds, and the rivers dancing with each other.

His work has been exhibited at the Venice, São Paulo, and Havana Biennials; as well as at the Centre Georges Pompidou, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the California African American Museum, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, and the Atlantic Center of Modern Art in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, among many others.

Manuel Mendive: With the new day the sun shines and leads us

Until August 31, 2025.

Latin Art Core gallery. 1646 SW 8 St, Miami, United States.