Rafael Domenech was born in 1989 in Havana, Cuba. In 2009, he graduated from the National Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro.”
Having grown up and been educated in a socialist system, an interest for architectural spaces and public propaganda naturally defined the foundation for Domenech’s early work. Rafael worked for a year as an assistant at a planning office in a section that dealt with political propaganda. During this time in Cuba, he was included in different shows at the Wifredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art, the Havana Biennale and the Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales.
In 2010, Domenech arrived in the United States, and a year after enrolled in the New World School of the Arts, graduating in the 2015. This transition and process of geographical relocation and cultural integration was transformational, quickly broadening the influences and interests of the artist. As one, Rafael concerns squarely study the sensitivity of perception and the changes brought forth within a context of time and the physicality of elements.
These spatial relationships and concerns began as a rebellion to the artist’s own history and earlier artistic practice: the compulsion of having a story to tell was replaced by more personal and fundamental considerations and theories. Supplanting these early notions was a commitment to an essential interaction and integration of work, viewer, and space to form an absolute, overall experience. Domenech’s work is then perceived complete only when it assimilates itself into a specific context, accepting surroundings rather than refusing or fighting them.
Domenech’s work has recently been exhibited at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Artium Museum in Vitoria, Spain; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami; the Rockefeller Foundation, New York; The Mordes Collection, Palm Beach. In 2015, Rafael was the recipient of the Tulsa Artist Fellowship and the Cintas Fellowship.
Education
2019 MFA Columbia University
2015 BFA New World School of the Arts
2009 BA National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro
Solo Exhibitions
2019
Las palabras son muros (Pavilion for Astoria), Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island, New York (Opening July 12th)
2016
Pleiades, Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, Florida
The List of Messier Objects Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
2014
Time/Memory/Context, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
2013
Symplectic Structures, Artseen NWSA, Miami, Florida
2010
Middle Ground, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, Florida
Last Image of a city, Casa-Museo Oswaldo Guayasamin Museum, Havana, Cuba
2009
The Wall, Collateral to 10th Havana Biennial, National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba
Canalización-GAS, Cascarilla Gallery, National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba
Group Exhibitions
2019
Columbia MFA thesis exhibition, Lenfest Center for the Arts, New York, New York
A stone in a shoe, Curated by Elvia Rosa Castro, Collateral to Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba
Spheres of Meaning: Artist Books Made in Miami, Phillip and Patricia Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida
La Mata (the perennial sprout) collaboration with Ernesto Oroza, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
A Gaze through the CINTAS Fellowship Program: A Selection of Works from the CINTAS Foundation and the Art Museum of the Americas, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington D.C.
A space to fill, Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York
2018
Grand reverse (Collaboration with Rirkrit Tiravanija), Tommy Simoens Gallery, Belgium
Feel that other day running underneath this one, Time Square Space, New York, New York
Summer Hot, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
DYI: Made in the studio, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, New York
Draw (Over) Contemporary drawing from LeRoy Neiman till Today, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
2018 Florida Prize, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida
Cubans; Post Truth, Pleasures, and Pain, SECCA, Winstom-Salem, North Carolina
MFA First Year Exhibition, Wallach Gallery, Columbia University, New York, New York
Signos 36 A project by Ernesto Oroza, Bienal 00, Havana, Cuba
Solid Abstraction: Strategies of Disobedience in Cuban Art, Miami Biennale, Miami, Florida
Still Crazy, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
2017
Between the Real and the Imagined, Coral Gables Museum, Miami, Florida
40th Anniversary Alumni Exhibition, New World School of the Arts Gallery, Miami
Florida Champions, Armory Center, West Palm Beach, Florida
2016
Orlando Museum of Art Florida Prize in Contemporary Art (Collaborative work with Maria Martinez-Cañas), Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida
Re-produce, Bailey Contemporary Arts, Pompano, Florida
Iconocracia, CAMM, Gran Canarias, Spain
Collaboration with Ernesto Oroza, Makers Fair, Miami, Florida
2015
100 + Degrees in the Shade, Red bridge Studios, Miami, Florida
Cintas Fellowship Award Exhibition, Freedom Tower, Miami, Florida
Libros sin dominio, 12 Havana Biennial, Fayad Jamis Bookstore, Havana, Cuba
NWSA BFA Exhibition, Center for Visual Communication, Miami, Florida
Iconocracia, Artium Museum, Vitoria – Gasteiz, Spain
Seinfeld, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Florida
2014
Beyond the Supersquare, Bronx Museum, New York
Altarations: Built, Blended, Processed, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida
Romance, Under the Bridge, Miami, Florida
2013
Rising Stars, New World School of the Arts Gallery, Miami, Florida
Behind the wall, The 8th floor gallery, New York, New York
2012
Detras del Muro/ Behind the wall (11th Havana Biennial), Havana City Cuba
Escapando con el paisaje (11th Havana Biennial), Provincial Center of Visual Art and Design Luz y Oficio, Havana City, Cuba
Rising stars, New World School of the Arts Gallery, Miami, Florida
League for Innovation, Miami Dade College Kendall Campus, Miami, Flroida
2011
Other Stories-Collective Show of the Project Cascarilla, Provincial Center of Visual Art and Design Luz y Oficio, Havana, Cuba
Ya see leer, Contemporary Art Center Wilfredo Lam, Havana, Cuba
Sound Senses, 18 Rabbit Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2010
Video projection, The Mordes Collection, West Palm Beach, Florida
2009
Ars Latina, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba
2008
Proyeccion Maraton, Cascarilla Gallery, National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba
La escultura es algo más que tridimensionalidad, Cascarilla Gallery, National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro, Havana, Cuba
Awards
2018
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
The Morty Frank Fellowship Fund
Soros foundation finalist
2016
Swing space project, MDC Museum of Arts and Design
2015
Cintas Fellowship Award
Tulsa Artist Fellowship