The SOCIAL Series : Andres Conde

The “SOCIAL” Series is based on the iconic Cuban magazine of the same name.  Inspired by the work of Conrado Massaguer, publisher, editor, illustrator and art director of Social Magazine, Andres Conde has undertaken the task of creating 240 new cover for “SOCIAL” beginning in 1939, the year after the original magazine closed.  Conde will symbolically close the series in 1959 on the date of The Revolution.

“Andres Conde is a Miami-based Cuban American painter whose work is informed by a range of influences from the sometimes nostalgic esthetics of Edward Hopper to his family's brutal experiences in Cuba.

Born in Havana in 1968, Conde moved to Miami with his family in 1980 after spending a brief period in New York City. He started drawing when he was 14. Conde attended the University of Miami. His first show was at a Miami Beach bar where he worked as a bartender in 1995.

His early work was inspired by his father's seven-year-imprisonment under the government of dictator Fidel Castro. The work, made when Conde was in his late 20s, was highly critical of Castro's brand of Communism, which was always totalitarianism in a left-wing mask. In particular, it took aim at Ernesto "Che" Guevara, an Argentine guerilla and pop culture icon considered a mass murderer by Cuban exiles and historians despite his omnipresence on T-shirts across the United States and Europe.

Conde's recent work is nostalgic, highly graphic and focuses on the joy of everyday life. Some of his paintings bring back memories of the classic film Casablanca. Others evoke an ironically sad nostalgia for a pre-1959 Cuba. There is also a dose of Miami Beach art deco typefaces to savor. Conde describes his paintings as "scenes of happy times." Those works frequently focus on his wife Stacy Conde, owner of the gallery by which Andres is represented, and his family.” - John Sevigny