Luis Miguel Valdes

Born in Cuba in 1949, resides and works between Havana, Mexico and Miami. He studied painting, drawing, engraving and sculpture at the National Art School in Havana until 1969, specializing in painting and printmaking. In 1976, together with a group of established artists, he founded the “Instituto Superior de Arte” of Havana, where he became the Director of the Printmaking Department and teacher of several generations of artists. In 1983, he was offered an internship at the prestigious “Atelier 17” in Paris, France - where Pablo Picasso and Francisco Toledo also worked- under the direction of Stanley William Hayter.

Since 1968, Valdes has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibits in various galleries, museums and institutions in United States, Cuba, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Romania, Spain, Syria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Colombia, Poland, Finland, Yugoslavia, Iraq and Canada. Throughout his career, he has also been the recipient of several awards including: the Adam Montparnasse group prize at the May Salon of Paris in 1968, the special prize at the UNESCO International Exhibit on the Art of Bookmaking in 1982 (Leipzig, Germany), the UNEAC Prize at the National Salon of Painting and Drawing in 1984 (Cuba); Honorable Mention at the UNEAC Salon for Installation and Digital Art (Cuba); first prize at the Fifth Meeting of Scientific Research on Art at the Superior Institute of Art (Cuba). He has also been awarded first prize in many printmaking competitions in his own country and abroad. From 1983 to 1986, Luis Miguel was Vice-president of UNESCO’s International Latin America Association of Plastic Art (AIAP). Later in 2003 he won the National Culture Medal in Cuba.

In 2000, he founded “La Siempre Habana”, a printmaking workshop in Mexico City where more than 80 recognized artists have worked and produced printing works of exceptionally high quality, creating the most important collection of Cuban printing out of the island. Since 1987, Luis Miguel Valdes has played a very important role in developing new techniques for the visual arts, especially in printmaking. He is an artist and master in printing, whose work has brought prestige to the art of printmaking around the world. As a result of his devotion to the arts and his many years of study and work, he has achieved international fame as important master printer in the Americas.