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GINA PELLÓN:
CENTENNIAL (1926 – 2026) |
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One hundred years after her birth, this exhibition celebrates the life and
work of Gina Pellón, whose paintings, collages, and works on paper occupy
a distinctive place within Cuban art in exile.
Pellón forged a visual language of expressionism with luminous color and
free-flowing line. Women, faces, and gatherings recur throughout her work,
emerging from striking fields of pigment in compositions positioned between
abstraction and figuration. Critics described the animating spirit of her
work as “the joy of being.”
Pellón was born in Cuba on December 26, 1926, in the former province of Las
Villas. She studied for six years at Havana’s Academy of San Alejandro and
later taught drawing at the Polytechnic Institute of Vedado. Her experience
as an educator coincided with the development of a spontaneity that would
remain central to her art. During these years, she encountered the gestural
freedoms and intense color of American Abstract Expressionism.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Mantilla for Silence
(Mantilla para el Silencio), 2008
mixed media on canvas
35 x 45 inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Sixteen,
page 98.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón,
Still Going Strong, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, FL, Nov. - Dec. 2010,
and illustrated in the corresponding
exhibition catalog, page 29.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, November 28 to
December 3, 2018.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in Palm Beach Modern and
Contemporary Fair, Palm Beach, Florida,
March 21 - 23, 2025.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Memories of Struggles
(Recuerdos de Luchas), 1988
mixed media on canvas
45 ½ x 34 ¾ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Seventeen,
page 89.
Exhibited in EXPO Chicago Art Fair,
Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago,
Illinois, April, 2023.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, December, 2025.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 - 2014)
Three Ladies
(Tres Jóvenes), 1991
oil on canvas
59 x 59 inches
To be illustrated in the upcoming
catalog IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty-Two, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, December 2026.
Provenance:
Private Collection, Paris, France.
This painting is registered in
the Photo Archives of Gina Pellón,
as organized by the artist, during
her lifetime.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, December, 2025.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Clueless Surface
(Superficie Desorientada), 2008
mixed media on Canvas
63 ½ x 50 ½ inches
To be illustrated in the upcoming
catalog IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty-Two, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, December 2026.
Provenance:
Private Collection, South Florida.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Lolita of the Opera Carmen by Bizet
(La Lolita de la Opera Carmen de Bizet), 2010
mixed media on canvas
24 x 19 ½ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Sixteen,
page 100.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón,
Still Going Strong, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, FL, Nov. – Dec. 2010,
and illustrated in the corresponding
exhibition catalog, page 34.
Exhibited in EXPO Chicago Art Fair,
Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago,
Illinois, September, 2019.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Cendras
(Cendras), 1984
mixed media on canvas
25 ½ x 21 ¼ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Sixteen,
page 91.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, Nov.- Dec., 2021.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in EXPO Chicago Art Fair,
Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois,
April, 2023.
Exhibited in Palm Beach Modern
and Contemporary Fair, Palm Beach, Florida,
March, 2024.
Exhibited in A Surrealist Century /
Un Siglo Surrealista, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, August - January
2025, and illustrated virtually on
cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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In 1959, Pellón traveled to France to continue her studies. Following the
Cuban Revolution, she decided not to return to the island and remained in
France after her visa expired. She had exhibited in Cuba for the last time
that same year, but her career thereafter would unfold in Europe and within
the wider Cuban diaspora.
Paris became the center of Pellón’s artistic and personal life. She quickly
found success in Europe, having her first solo show outside of Cuba in
Lucern, Switzerland the year after her arrival. In 1961 she received the
Medal of the City of Cholet, France. She became a central figure in a
community of Latin American and Cuban artists in Paris, including the
painter Angel Acosta León. She also connected with figures associated
with Surrealism, among them André Breton, Roberto Matta,
and Wifredo Lam, and prominent intellectuals like José Pierre,
Édouard Glissant, and José Gómez Sicre.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Dream Window on Pedals
(Ventana de Sueños a Pedal), 1975
mixed media on canvas
48 x 36 inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Fifteen,
page 102.
Exhibited in A Group Show of
Cuban Art Masters, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, FL, May - July 2018,
and illustrated digitally on
cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in EXPO Chicago Art Fair,
Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago,
Illinois, September, 2018.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Pellón not only developed close relationships with the surrealists,
but also with the CoBrA movement, the postwar European avant-garde
group whose name derived from Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam.
She befriended Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, and Guillaume Corneille,
and shared their interest in spontaneity and expressive color.
She exhibited alongside the group, and her work attracted
audiences in northern Europe. These affinities informed her
practice, but Pellón reimagined the artistic currents around
her into a language grounded in female presence and her own
experiences of displacement and belonging.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Lady in Her Chamber
(Dama en su Habitación), 1978
mixed media on canvas
50 ¾ x 38 ¼ inches
To be illustrated in the upcoming
catalog IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty-Two, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, December 2026.
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist’s Estate.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, December, 2025.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
We Dance at the Edge of the World
(Nosotros Bailamos al Borde del Mundo), 1982
oil on canvas
57 ¼ x 44 ½ inches
To be illustrated in the upcoming
catalog IMPORTANT CUBAN ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty-Two, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, December 2026.
This painting is registered in the Photo
Archives of Gina Pellón, as organized
by the artist, during her lifetime.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Ready for the Dance
(Lista para El Baile), 2013
mixed media on canvas
39 x 31 ¼ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Eighteen,
page 87.
Provenance:
Private Collection, São Paolo, Brazil.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in Palm Beach Modern and
Contemporary Art Fair, Palm Beach,
Florida, March, 2023.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Mandatory Escape
(Obligada Escapatoria), 2010
mixed media on canvas
44 ¾ x 34 ¼ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Twenty-One,
page 94.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón,
Still Going Strong, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, FL, Nov. – Dec. 2010,
and illustrated in the corresponding
exhibition catalog, page 34.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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For Pellón, exile was a moral commitment as much as a personal
circumstance. She was a steadfast advocate for the democratization
of Cuba and was dedicated to the freedom of political prisoners and
the defense of human rights. As an artist who understood the price
of freedom firsthand, her illustrations for Amnesty International
gave visual form to these convictions. In her canvases, exile is
almost never illustrated, but always embodied. Her figures rarely
settle within the frame, and in this way she anticipated by decades
conversations about diaspora and identity that occupy art today.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
The Hen
(La Gallina), 2011
mixed media on canvas
75 ¾ x 50 ½ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Seventeen,
page 92.
Exhibited in A Group Show of Artworks
by Cuban & Latin American Artists,
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, Florida,
May - July 2012, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com,
exhibitions.
Exhibited in Dallas Art Fair,
Dallas, Texas, April, 2016.
Exhibited in EXPO Chicago Art Fair,
Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago,
Illinois, September, 2019.
Exhibited in Art Palm Beach
Fair, Palm Beach, Florida,
January- February, 2020.
Exhibited in Art Wynwood Fair,
Wynwood, Miami, Florida,
February, 2023.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, Florida, December, 2024.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Rainbow Games
(Juegos del Arcoiris), 2010
collage on heavy paper
11 ½ x 8 inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón, Still Going
Strong, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
Nov. – Dec. 2010, and illustrated in the
corresponding exhibition catalog, page 9.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in Art Miami Fair,
Miami, FL, Nov. - Dec., 2022.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Happy Young Lady
(Muchacha Feliz), 2010
collage on heavy paper
11 ½ x 8 inches
Illustrated in IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty,
page 82.
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón, Still Going
Strong, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
Nov. – Dec. 2010, and illustrated in the
corresponding exhibition catalog, page 9.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in Art Wynwood Fair,
Miami, Florida, February, 2024.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
The Dancer Dances
(La Bailarina Baila), 2010
collage on heavy paper
11 ½ x 8 inches
Illustrated in IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS,
Volume Twenty,
page 82.
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
Exhibited in Gina Pellón, Still Going
Strong, Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
Nov. – Dec. 2010, and illustrated in the
corresponding exhibition catalog, page 9.
Exhibited in 100 Years of Creation by
Twenty Women Artists (1922 – 2022),
Cernuda Arte, Coral Gables, FL,
July – December, 2022, and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com, exhibitions.
Exhibited in Art Wynwood Fair,
Miami, Florida, February, 2024.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Over five decades, her work appeared in more than fifty solo exhibitions
and more than one hundred group exhibitions across Europe and the
Americas, including presentations in Paris, Lausanne, Brussels,
Amsterdam, Toulouse, Silkeborg, Larvik, Geneva, Barcelona, London,
Budapest, Venice, Miami, New York, Mexico City, Caracas, and more.
In 1978, she received a Cintas Foundation Fellowship and was named a
Chevalier of the French Order of Arts and Letters. In 1999, the Musée
du Pilori in Niort, France, organized a retrospective of her work.
Pellón’s practice extended beyond painting. She produced collages and
prints, designed tapestries, and created sets and costumes for two
feature films by the French director Marcel Hanoun. She illustrated
books by French writers and publications. For the final ten years of her
life, she was represented by Cernuda Arte in Coral Gables, who are
now the stewards of her archives. The artist died in Paris in 2014.
Centennial brings together more than twenty paintings, collages, and
works on paper created between 1970 and 2014, tracing Pellón’s Paris
years through the final period of her career.
Nico Hough & Nercys Cernuda
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Golden Fleece
(Lana de Oro), 2013
mixed media on canvas
45 ½ x 34 ½ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Fourteen,
page 103.
Exhibited in The Young and The Restless:
Contemporary Art, Cernuda Arte,
Coral Gables, Florida, April - August 2013,
and illustrated
digitally on cernudaarte.com,
exhibitions.
Exhibited in Dallas Art Fair,
Dallas, Texas, April, 2017.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Circus and Carnival Festival
(Fiesta de Circo y Carnaval), 2013
mixed media on canvas
39 ⅜ x 31 ¾ inches
Illustrated in
IMPORTANT CUBAN
ARTWORKS, Volume Twelve,
page 106.
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
Exhibited at Palm Beach Modern and
Contemporary Art Fair, Palm Beach, Florida,
March, 2023.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
Polemic
(Polemic), 1991
mixed media on paper
21 ½ x 29 ½ inches
NOT FOR SALE
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
When the Birds Sleep
(Cuando Los Pájaros Duermen), ca. 1984
ink on paper
12 ¾ x 9 ½ inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 – 2014)
When the Birds Sleep
(Cuando Los Pájaros Duermen), ca. 1984
ink on paper
12 ¾ x 9 ½ inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 - 2014)
Faces, 3 of 4
(Rostros, 2 de 4), ca. 1984
ink on paper
12 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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Gina Pellón (1926 - 2014)
Faces, 2 of 4
(Rostros, 2 de 4), ca. 1984
ink on paper
12 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist.
In Exhibition: 2nd Floor, 3155 Building.
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