Firetti Contemporary presents Reverie, a mesmerising solo exhibition by Cuban-American artist Reynier Llanes that features his latest body of work. In this series of oil paintings, Llanes dissolves the boundaries between memory, imagination, and lived experience, offering a richly symbolic visual language that speaks to the personal and the universal. The show will be open to the public until 13 June 2025.
At the heart of Reverie is a journey inward: through transformation, introspection, and the surreal terrains of the mind. Llanes’s compositions, inhabited by dreamlike figures and fantastical landscapes, evoke a world where the conscious and subconscious converge. The exhibition’s title, Reverie, hints at this liminal state: a space where reason gives way to intuition.
Central to the series is The Poet, a recurring figure who drifts across the canvases as a witness and wanderer. Ethereal and enigmatic, The Poet moves between past and present, imagination and memory, quietly observing life’s fleeting yet profound moments: self-discovery, love, loss, and resilience. As a symbolic vessel, The Poet invites viewers to project their narratives.
Llanes’s paintings serve as portals into psychological states, where archetypes and allegories coalesce. Taking cues from literature, mythology, and personal history, he layers each scene with nuanced symbolism and emotional depth. The result is a collection that feels at once timeless and deeply intimate.
About the artist
Reynier Llanes (b. 1985, Pinar del Río, Cuba) resides in Miami (USA). He began his formal training at the School of Art in his hometown before continuing his studies at the National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro (Havana). In 2007, Llanes emigrated to the USA, a pivotal moment that would shape his artistic vision.
As an immigrant, Llanes brings a diasporic lens to his practice, weaving together the folklore, spirituality, and natural imagery of Cuba with influences from the American South, particularly New Orleans, Charleston, and Miami, where he has lived. His style blends classical techniques with magical realism, resulting in a layered, transhistorical aesthetic that transcends geography and time.
Llanes is known for his innovative use of coffee as a painting medium, alongside oil and watercolour, creating earthy, time-worn textures that lend his works a sense of history and permanence, as if excavated from the subconscious rather than freshly painted.
Llanes’s work has been featured in many exhibitions, which include What is Essential is Invisible to the Eye (solo) (Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH, USA, 2022); Vibrant Vision: African Diaspora and African American Artists (Crealdé School of Art, Winter Park, FL, USA, 2018); Moja Art Festival (Jonathan Green and Protégé, City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC, 2009); and October 20th Day of Culture (Pedro Junco Municipal Gallery, Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, 2007), among others.
Llanes has received several accolades, including the Mayor’s Purchase Award at the 28th Annual Moja Arts Juried Art Exhibition (Charleston, SC, 2011) and the Second Place at Guernica with Havana Artists (Beach Museum, Havana, Cuba, 2006). In 2012, Oxford America recognised Llanes as one of the New Superstars of Southern Art. His works are part of various esteemed collections, such as the Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO, USA), the Arkansas Arts Center, the Museum of Fine Arts (Little Rock, AR, USA), and the Morris Museum of Art (Augusta, GA, USA).
To get more information about Reverie, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you may be interested in viewing Still They Know Not What I Dream by Shilpa Gupta.
