Ernesto Rancaño

Buscando la salida, 2009

Mixed media and bronce keys on canvas, 102 x 95 cm.


  • Who among the Cuban artists of this generation knows how to create images of an intense lyricism. Rancaño’s naked bodies have their marble sensuality originated in the romantic tale of beauty.
  • Images of an intense lyricism, Rancaño’s naked bodies have their marble sensuality originated in the romantic tale of beauty.
  • Contemporary Cuban works of art are increasingly sought after by collector worldwide, and Ernesto Rancaño’s masterpieces are ones of them.
  • Su formación es pictórica pero no duda en echar mano a la escultura, el grabado, la fotografía y la instalación siempre que sus intereses expresivos así lo han demandado. Ejemplo del compromiso del artista consigo y con la época, Rancaño se erige como una de las figuras más relevantes de la pintura cubana contemporánea.
  • Being an example of the artist committed to himself and to his time, Rancaño stands as one of the most important figures of the contemporary Cuban art. His poetic work brought him to the notice of contemporary art market worldwide.
  • Ernesto Rancaño could be characterized as one of the most significant and singular contemporary visual Cuban artists.
  • De los artistas más importantes del panorama del arte cubano contemporáneo, destaca con singularidad la obra de Ernesto Rancaño, artista que ha incursionado con igual éxito en la pintura, el grabado, la cerámica, la escultura, y en el instalacionismo. En la obra Buscando la salida el artista recurre a la técnica mixta, se trata de una impresión fotográfica sobre lienzo que Rancaño interviene pictóricamente, logrando así una mayor riqueza de texturas y matices visuales.
  • Ernesto Rancaño could be characterized as one of the most significant and singular contemporary visual Cuban artists.

In Buscando la salida (Seeking a way out) Rancaño resorts to a mixed technique. It is a photographic print over canvass, which likewise the artist treats pictorially, thus achieving a higher yield of textures and visual shades. Besides, a series of old keys have been hung from the canvass with red stitches, something akin to rain of heavy metal gravitating over the lady’s beautiful torso. It is a cold piece, given the use of a chromatic range close to the gray, but at the same time conveying great erotic strength, which is complemented, or further complicated, with his mysterious semantic statement. What way out is the artist referring to? The answers, undoubtedly, will depend on the imagination of each viewer seduced by that robust body of a Cuban mulatto girl.