EXPLORE MAGICAL MEXICAN TOWNS, 6

Not everyone makes it through life truly satisfied. Rafael Soriano did.

The Cuban artist made a name for himself both in his estranged home country and in his new home of Miami. For over 60 years, he mastered his own style of surrealism and a technique that turned oil paintings into glimpses of another universe. But one day, in 2000, he decided that he had painted his last work.

His daughter, Hortensia Soriano, asked him if he was sure. Of course, he responded. in renowned permanent museum collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Cuba, Museo de Antioquia in Colombia and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.

Soriano was “the Rothko for us, for the Cuban American artists,” Cernuda said. His visual language was unique. His use of color was masterful. His paintings, including every single work on display at the gallery, look as though they are illuminated from the inside.

“This is somebody who understood shadows and lights and color theory like very few artists of the 20th century did,” Cernuda said.

Cernuda credited the exhibition to Hortensia’s efforts to archive her father’s paintings and cement his legacy as a seminal figure in Miami’s artist community. The show was the perfect fit for LnS because the gallery aims to highlight “the young history of the Miami art scene,” which boomed after the exile of Cubans in the 1980s, he said.

“The ‘80s in Miami is a really fascinating time,” Cernuda said. “Soriano was at the epicenter of all of it assisting a lot of young artists because he had already been here for so many years.”

But the show also serves as a love letter to Hortensia’s parents and their story. Milagros, Hortensia’s mother who died in October, was her husband’s biggest supporter and collaborator. She mounted his canvases and built his frames. The couple named the paintings together. The exhibition’s catalog was dedicated to Milagros.

“For me, it’s an emotional, amazing moment to see these beautiful 1990s late style works of his here in this beautiful space,” Hortensia said.

Hortensia, a retired chiropractic physician, grew up surrounded by these paintings, even into adulthood. At the gallery, she sat on a small bench in front of “Espejismos de agua,” a large deep blue and purple mirage her father painted in 1990. For years, she would sit at her Miami Beach home staring into the painting while sipping her morning

PHOTOS BY ZACHARY BALBER COURTESY OF LNS GALLERY Rafael Soriano, a renowned artist who left Cuba, was a pioneer in Miami’s arts community and a master of light and color. A solo exhibition at LnS Gallery displays the late artist’s work from the last decade of his career. Above, ‘Espejismos de Agua’ by Rafael Soriano.