Wilfredo Prieto

Wilfredo Prieto (1978, Sancti-Spiritus, Cuba) lives and works in Havana. His practice ranges from installation and performance to sculpture, drawing and environmental works, and is characterised by an almost shocking economy of means: through minimal artistic gestures, Prieto takes objects and materials from everyday life — a banana peel, a roll of toilet paper, a mountain of fake diamonds with one real one hidden among them — removes them from their context, and generates short-circuits of meaning that surprise the viewer and invite reflection. His works function as open metaphors, translated into the language of familiar things, resisting any single interpretation.

Prieto's early works were closely tied to the politics and daily life of Cuba — his native country, with which he has maintained a critical but intense relationship. More recently his practice has opened toward broader economic, cultural and social themes: the production of goods, symbols and values in a globalised society; the paradoxes of the chain of production, sale and consumption; the invisible but often brutal dimension of what we consider normal. Standing against the oversaturated rhythms of contemporary culture, Prieto proposes communicating with the essentials — even at the risk of going unnoticed. As curator Ferran Barenblit has observed, his work reminds us that anyone could have done what he did. That this is not true is precisely the point.

Prieto studied at the Professional School of Fine Arts, Trinidad (1992–1996) and the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana (1998–2002), where he was also a member of the Galeria DUPP GROUP (1999–2002). He completed residencies at the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Gasworks, London (supported by The Cartier Award, Frieze, 2008); and held a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, New York (2006).

Solo exhibitions include Rama de monedas, Galleria Massimo Minini, Brescia (2022); Fake News, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2020); Chiudere un occhio, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples (2019); Houses without people, people without houses, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2018); Swan Bones, Massimo Minini Gallery, Brescia (2017); Loophole, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2015); Speaking badly about Stones, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2014); Equilibrando la curva, HangarBicocca, Milan (2012); The Emperor's New Clothes, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam (2011); and Mountain, S.M.A.K., Ghent (2008).

Group exhibitions include Interference: Emaús, Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2022); Time of Intuition, 57th Venice Biennale (2017); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); The Artists Project (4th season), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2015); Une Histoire, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennale (2010).

Awards include The Cartier Award, Frieze, with residency at Gasworks, London (2008); John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2006); Kadist Art Foundation Residency, Paris (2005); and the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, VII Havana Biennial (2000).

His work is held in public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Art Gallery of Ontario; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Fundacion/Coleccion Jumex, Mexico City; CA2M, Comunidad de Madrid; Daros Collection of Latinamerican Art, Zurich; and Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania.