At first glance, Acosta's paintings appear to be realistic and three-dimensional representations of vaguely recognizable environments. A recurring element is the coldness that emanates from these architectural testimonies of a timeless history. Supported by a frozen chromatic palette, these pieces—almost minimalist from certain perspectives—lack pathways for approach. Both the representation and the physical work itself seem conceived to be observed from a distance. They do not invite; they close themselves off. Whether viewed through the lens of history, social criticism, or psychology, Gustavo Acosta's paintings remain disturbing meditations on the reintegration of man into a hostile environment and within the violent assumptions of his era.

Acosta was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1958. He attended the San Alejandro Academy, and later on the Superior Institute of Art (ISA), both in Havana. Acosta left Cuba in 1993 and moved to Miami in 1994.Over the years Acosta has produced an extensive body of work and has presented many personal exhibitions. Among these should be mentioned a touring one in Brazil, which began at the Caixa Cultural de Rio de Janeiro and ended at the Caixa Cultural in Sao Paulo. His work has been included in several collective exhibitions; and can be found in museums and institutions such as the National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba; Wifredo Lam Center, Havana, Cuba; Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA. Miami, Florida; Lowe Art Museum, Miami, Florida; Fort Lauderdale Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Nassau County Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Panama.

Segura employs a repertoire of images conceived with humor and sarcasm to tackle socially and politically charged themes from Cuban history. His allegories highlight the complexity of everyday life on the island, while also exploring its cultural and spiritual landscape. Various manifestations of winged animals and machines, planes, and submarines appear recurrently in his works, representing concepts such as freedom, isolation, immigration, desire, and exile. This small collection of works is an almost perfect summary of these concerns. Making the most of the technical limitations of ceramics, he simplifies his preoccupations with an appreciable level of synthesis. For example, the theme of flight, which for the average Cuban is more about escape, emigration, or exile—far removed from tourism—the labyrinth, which implies the tragedy of sustaining even the most basic daily life in Cuba; the importance of simulation in a totalitarian state, the lies that so often reach its citizens, and the endless cycle of indecision between staying or leaving for good. By embracing pop culture, Afro-Cuban influences, religious iconography, and eroticism, he celebrates, on the other hand, the beauty and ingenuity of his island while challenging the barriers that isolate and divide his people.

Esterio Segura (b. Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, 1970) is a graduate of Camagüey Professional Art School in 1989 and of the Higher Institute of Arts (ISA) in 1994. He has imparted lessons in the second, in Camagüey’s Professional Art School, and in the University of South Florida, Tampa; and he has worked as a supervisor and opponent to various diploma papers in Cuba and in the United States. He is the author of the sculptures used for the multi-awarded film Fresa y Chocolate by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. Besides the awards received, he has been granted important artistic residencies by the Ludwig Aachen Forum (Germany, 1997), by the University of South Florida in Tampa (2005), among others. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), of the International Association of Plastic Artists and of the international network UNESCO-ASCHBERG. Among his more than thirty solo exhibitions, recently the National Museum of Fine Arts welcomed the proposal Altavoz contra la pared [Loudspeaker against the wall] within the framework of the 7th Leo Brower Festival of Chamber Music, 2015. He has participated in fifty group exhibitions, both national and international, and has worked as a co-curator of the exhibition Las metáforas del templo [The temple’s metaphors] (Center for the Development of Visual Arts, Havana, 1993). His presence in the international arena includes twenty-five Fairs and Biennials, like Art Basel (Miami), ARCO (Madrid), and the Havana Biennials. His works belong to private collections in Cuba, France, Germany, England, the United States, Holland, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Israel, Italy, Spain, Canada, Switzerland, and South Africa. Important institutions treasure his production, among them the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Bronx Museum, both in New York. Other American collections are those of the Museum of Latin American Art of Long Beach in California, the Museum of the University of Arizona, and the Museum of Modern Art of South Florida in Tampa. He is represented in the Museum of Latin American Art of the University of Essex and in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. In this last institution, the permanent exhibition of contemporary art exhibits: Santo de paseo por el trópico [Saint taking a tour by the tropic] (1991) and La diestra [The skillful] (1994).

Similar to the work of Gustavo Acosta, Néstor Arenas’ oeuvre delves into the representation of architectural "landscapes" and geometric structures, where extravagant constructions rise alongside machines that engage in a dialogue with multiple iconographic references from modern culture. His scenarios transport us to a contemporary yet dreamlike and unnatural environment. These cities and spaces reveal constructivist references from the European avant-garde, as well as influences from video games and Hollywood science fiction films. In the 1990s, Arenas, along with many other artists, moved to Europe to witness the dismantling of Real Socialism, both physically and symbolically. There, they experienced the rare post-mortem melancholy of its adherents, expressed in the realm of culture through the German and Slavic prisms. This leap allowed them to free themselves from the local narrow-mindedness and paternalism in order to create a more universal art and seek validation without state support. However, they did not abandon Cuban themes. Arenas’ production is fundamentally figurative and influenced by pop and neo-pop. It relies on a photomechanical base and digital support that enhances the graphic aspect of his work. With these tools, he creates theatrical, surreal, and metaphysical landscapes, yet his style can also be associated with the so-called lowbrow painting, a term that since the late 1970s has been adopted to express the opposite of the sophisticated and elitist.

Nestor Arenas, was born in 1964 in Holguin, Cuba. He is one of the most neo-figurative artists representative of his generation. His work projects visions where the historical coexist with the autobiographical. Intertwining critical reflections on both his life experience past, under the totalitarian communist utopia, as well as his present within the capitalism in times of the global village. Arenas’ work has been shown in solo and group shows across the US, USA, Cuba, Spain and China. His work is part of important private collections and corporations, including: Forrest Capital, The Mosquera Collection, Jorge Reynardus Collection, Leigh University and the University of Valencia, among others. He was awarded by the prestigious United States Pollock-Krasner Foundation in his 2019 edition. Nestor Arenas currently lives and works in Miami, Florida.