Richard Somonte is a Cuban contemporary painter, born in Havana in 1991. He graduated with honours in Painting from the National Academy of Fine Arts San Alejandro in Havana in 2010, one of the oldest and most important art academies in Cuba. His artistic career began in Cuba and continued in Spain, where he has been based since 2019.

Somonte’s practice is deeply rooted in the history and traditions of Western painting. Throughout his career, he has explored the relationship between contemporary painting and the artistic heritage of different periods, with particular attention to the Spanish and European pictorial tradition.

The Christ series emerges from this longstanding engagement with Western painting, in which the representation of Christ has been one of the most enduring and recurring subjects. From the Renaissance and Baroque masters to modern and contemporary painting, the image of Christ has offered artists an extraordinary subject through which to explore the human figure, symbolism, light, colour, emotion and the possibilities of pictorial language.

Rather than reproducing a historical model, Somonte approaches this tradition from a contemporary perspective, studying how an image so deeply embedded in Western visual culture can continue to be interpreted through painting today. His works establish a dialogue between the historical representation of Christ and his own research into colour, technique, composition and the possibilities of contemporary figurative painting.

His broader practice reflects an ongoing interest in the relationship between tradition and contemporary painting, bringing together references from Spanish and European art, Cuban cultural heritage and, more recently, Japanese pictorial traditions.

Somonte has exhibited in Cuba, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, and his work is held in private and institutional collections internationally. His career includes solo and group exhibitions, awards and projects developed both independently and through his Madrid-based Somonte Painting Studio, founded in 2022 together with Beatriz Bullón.