NEW YORK, NY.- Marc Straus announced the representation of Carlos Quintana. Carlos (b. 1966, Cuba), who lives and works in Havana and Miami, makes feverish paintings, narratives, some with ghostly figures, others with a rabbit or horses, or a woman in an old-world gown and parasol. Everything is open to him through his restless paintings. The work has echoes of Goya and El Greco, but these are more sun-drenched and equatorial. One thinks also of Gauguin.

What is he trying to tell us? Some works feel as though they might be political, but for Carlos this isn’t intentional. It would be over-reading to suggest a dissatisfaction with Havana. Mostly he loves it though more and more he has need to travel and paint elsewhere. There is a solitary rabbit on view currently in his major solo exhibition in Venice. A banner with the rabbit painting hangs outside the elegant 16th century palazzo near the Accademia. Inside the painting is high up in a room with elaborately decorated floors, walls, and antique furniture. The rabbit is an observer, whimsically watching all entering. He’s a bit time-worn but has accumulated knowledge that comes with hard-won experience.

He is Carlos, perhaps, and in many ways all the works have an autobiographical quality.

Quintana has had scores of one-person exhibits but most in Havana and Miami. He had two shows at Robert Miller Gallery, New York, and several in Europe including one in Venice this summer. His inaugural solo exhibition with Marc Straus will open this fall on October 24, 2019.