Julio Larraz

Born 1944 in Havana, Cuba, Julio Larraz is an award-winning and internationally recognized painter, sculptor as well as a draftsman. Larraz started drawing at an early age. As a young artist, Larraz would often draw political caricatures. His work was published by the New York Times, the Washington Post and Vogue Magazine, among others.

Cultural references to his native land Cuba are recurrent in Larraz’s work. An acceptance of surrealism can be noticed in his depictions, alongside expressionist outbursts confined to rejecting the abuse of power. Sending a message in solidarity and deliberating injustice, Larraz’s brushstrokes playfully handle the moral ground. Having his expression for display in different forms, Larraz paints everything from political to landscaping female subjects. A message of hope can be seen in a minimalistic fashion realizing how sublime messages are encoded in Larraz’s work.

Larraz is famous for his precise technique with a hint of subtleness. His work reads like a biography of his life, almost embedded. Portraying all the cultural and political changes he observed around himself, the oeuvre displays his life through early childhood spent in Cuba to his family moving to the United States. An extrapolation of his observations from daily life presents his expressions of people he sees in his daily commute to places he visits. A prime example of this is his use of predominant lights, referencing his time in the sunshine of Cuba and Miami.

Larraz has been the recipient of multiple awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Also, he won a grant from the Institute of International Education. Larraz has had multiple international exhibitions over the years in places like Paris, Washington, Miami, among others. He has gained the reputation of being one of the most influential artists of Latin America.

Julio Larraz lives and works in Miami, Florida.