About The Art

The Butler Institute of American Art is proud to present an exhibition of paintings by internationally acclaimed Cuban-American artist Julio Larraz, opening Sunday, 14 September 2025.

Julio Larraz’s oil paintings inhabit a realm where reality and imagination converge. With a mastery of light, precision of detail, and an ever-present undercurrent of wit, Larraz constructs visual narratives that are at once alluring and enigmatic. His compositions often weave together satirical social commentary, poetic symbolism, and art-historical allusions, inviting viewers to decipher their multiple layers of meaning.

Drawing on his early career as a celebrated political caricaturist for publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, Larraz infuses his paintings with sharp observation and a keen sense of narrative. His works are frequently anchored in imagined spaces, seascapes, grand interiors, and improbable architectural constructs, that blur the boundaries between truth and fiction. Marine imagery remains a recurrent theme, serving as both a visual signature and a metaphor for exploration, displacement, and the subconscious.

As in much of his oeuvre, the works in this exhibition play with spatial ambiguity and juxtaposition, compelling the viewer to reconcile the familiar with the fantastical. The result is a body of work that is both intellectually engaging and visually captivating, a testament to Larraz’s enduring place in contemporary art.

About the Artist:

Julio Larraz (b. 1944, Havana, Cuba) moved to the United States in 1961 and began his career as a political cartoonist. By the early 1970s, he dedicated himself entirely to painting, holding his first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. in 1971. Since then, Larraz has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, with solo shows in prestigious venues including the Coral Gables Museum (FL), Miles McEnery Gallery (NY), Contini Galleria d’Arte (Venice), Ascaso Gallery (FL) Art of the World Gallery (TX) and Complesso del Vittoriano (Rome). His work is held in major public and private collections worldwide, including the Perez Art Museum Miami, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Coral Gables Museum, Museo de Arte Moderno (Bogotá), and the Westmoreland Museum of Art. He has received numerous awards from institutions such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Center for the Arts and Education in New York.

Julio Larraz lives and works in Miami, Florida.

This exhibition is in conjunction with National Hispanic Heritage Month and on view in the MacIntosh Gallery second floor.

CATEGORIES: Exhibition

DATE: September 14, 2025 - November 23, 2025

LOCATION: MacIntosh Gallery, second-level