Carlos Alfonzo

Carlos Alfonzo (b. 1950, Havana, Cuba – d.1991, Miami, FL) was a trailblazing figure whose creative contributions significantly shaped Miami’s role as a hub of artistic influence. As a prodigious talent formalizing his practice in Cuba under Castro’s communist regime, Alfonzo attended the Academia de Bellas Artes, San Alejandro, where he earned a degree in Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking in 1973. He furthered his studies at the University of Havana, Cuba, achieving a degree in Art History in 1974. Cautiously navigating the personal and artistic repressions of post-revolutionary life as a queer artist, he became disenchanted with the sociopolitical climate. In July of 1980, Alfonzo fled oppression through the Mariel Boatlift and exiled to the US, settling in Miami. Over the following decade, Alfonzo’s work found a place in pivotal exhibitions, such as Hispanic Art in the United States (1987), which toured seven American institutions. His work was also included in the 41st Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at Corcoran Gallery (1989). Notably, he received a Visual Artist Fellowship in Painting from the National Endowment for the Arts (1990) in Washington D.C., along with a CINTAS Fellowship in the Visual Arts.

Alfonzo’s life was tragically claimed by an AIDS-related illness at the age of 40. Significantly, only one month after his death in 1991, his paintings were exhibited in the Whitney Biennial of Contemporary American Art. Today, his work forms part of permanent collections at world-renowned institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), The Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.), The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art (Sarasota, FL), and the PAMM (Miami, FL). Recent solo exhibitions, such as Carlos Alfonzo: Late Paintings at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2022), have honored the painter’s legacy and achieved substantial contributions in the research and scholarship on the artist. Notably, the ICA Miami, published a significant monographic volume in partnership with the solo show which documents many of the artist’s works.