Mario García Portela

Portelo at his home in Havana, Cuba. Photo by Vanessa K. Harper (2019)

Portela is one of the boldface names of Cuban landscape painting. As an icon of the genre and a reference for both established and emerging artists, this painter comes from Pinar del Rio, the province that some people call the regional school of landscape, of which this artist is a master and founder. Mario is a member of Cuba’s National Union of Writers and Artists (UNEAC), a drawing and painting professor, and holds a degree in history and social science. His vast professional career includes teaching tenures at the School of Fine Arts and the Pinar del Rio Pedagogical Institute. He has taken home more than a dozen national prizes. Portela has taken part in more than a hundred group exhibitions in Cuba, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago, Canada, the United States, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Malaysia, Lebanon, and Norway.

---

Portela’s Work