Circular Reflections

Pablo Cano’s artwork belongs to the realm of whimsical pop-surrealism, scrap-metal assemblage, and theatrical performance art. His creative practice transforms the discarded remnants of consumer culture—found objects, vintage tin cans, broken umbrellas, and industrial refuse—into highly expressive, kinetic marionettes and intricate mixed-media sculptures. Heavily influenced by Dadaism, mid-century European avant-garde, and traditional Cuban folk performance, Cano uses these discarded objects to breathe life into historical characters, classical literature, and operatic archetypes. By pairing his static museum assemblages with live, choreographic musical theater and multimedia puppetry, his work critiques consumer waste while celebrating the eternal resilience of the human imagination.

Academic Foundations: Born in Havana, Cuba, on March 11, 1961, he immigrated to the United States with his family as an infant in 1962 at less than one year old, settling permanently in Miami, Florida. He received early specialized mentorship in the Miami workshops of noted sculptors Barbara Neijna and Tony López. He completed his initial academic training, earning an Associate in Arts from Miami Dade Community College in 1980, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1982. He subsequently completed his higher studio education at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), graduating with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting and Sculpture in 1986.

Institutional Service & Parallel Disciplines: His institutional integration took root within the foundational exile and South Florida arts infrastructure. He has worked dynamically across the disciplines of theatrical staging, scriptwriting, and performance direction. This includes an extended tenure in higher education delivering specialized studio fine arts instruction, a parallel career track detailed subsequently in his academic appointments. His career trajectory was profoundly informed by a prestigious CINTAS Foundation Fellowship appointment in 1983, which funded a critical parallel residency and research chapter in Paris, France, linking his sculptural practice directly with European avant-garde traditions.

Exile, Translocation & Relocations: Born in Havana, Cuba, his translocation to the United States occurred during the historic post-revolutionary exodus of 1962 when he was less than a year old. He remained anchored in Miami until his academic translocations took him to Baltimore (1980–1982) and New York City (1984–1986). His international migrations include a developmental chapter in Paris, France, from 1983 to 1984, before returning to permanently establish his studio presence in South Florida.

Current Status: He resides and works full-time in Miami, Florida, maintaining an active physical studio practice focused on found-object engineering, delicate paper collages, and public art commissions.

• 1987–1999: Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities, Miami Dade College / New World School for the Arts, Miami, FL. (Instructed specialized higher education curricula across Humanities, Art Appreciation, Basic Design, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing, and dedicated Marionette Construction Workshops).

• The Kinetic Scrap-Metal Marionettes: A lifelong defining portfolio of human and anthropomorphic characters meticulously engineered from obsolete post-consumer items (e.g., vintage tin can bodies, discarded hubcaps, broken umbrella ribbing). This series transforms structural municipal waste into functional, performance-ready actors that bridge the gap between static gallery display and theatrical staging.
• The Royal Ladies & Historical Portraits: A recurrent conceptual exploration of nobility, exile history, and portraiture—typified by prominent pieces like Princess Havana and Queen Marie Antoinette. These works blend humor with high-art institutional critique, subverting the traditional materials of historical European and pre-revolutionary Cuban aristocratic portraiture using mundane, discarded materials.
• The Fine Paper Collages & Painted Backdrops: A foundational two-dimensional studio medium complementing his spatial kinetic sculptures. This series focuses on intricate, dream-like watercolors, graphic layouts, and landscapes created from layered, repurposed ephemera, exploring themes of childhood imagination, memory, and material transience.

This artist has participated in 17 solo exhibitions and major solo performance commissions:

• 2026: Side Show, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL. (A multimedia theatrical presentation and sculpture installation introducing kinetic found-object puppets accompanied by live vocals and vintage records).
• 2026: Streams of Consciousness, Bridge Red Studios, North Miami, FL. (A comprehensive solo exhibition focusing on his intricate watercolor storyboards, developmental sketches, and suspended marionettes).
• 2023: The Art of Pablo Cano, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL. (A retrospective cataloging his line drawings, junk-art assemblages, and performance architecture).
• 2016: Pablo Cano: To The Eye Behind The Keyhole (1979–2016), Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL.
• 2014: The Lady of Shalott, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), North Miami, FL. (An operatic multimedia marionette production inspired by Lord Tennyson’s poem).
• 2014: Marionettes To Cake Boxes, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL.
• 2013: Recycled Dreams, Vero Beach Museum of Art, Vero Beach, FL.
• 2012: To Catch a Star, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), North Miami, FL.
• 2011: Once Upon an Island, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL.
• 2011: 12 Years of Marionette Productions, Kelley Roy Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 2010: Found Objects / Found Love, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL. (A 30-year anniversary survey curated by Anthony Ardavin).
• 2009: Cavaletti’s Dream/Viva Vivaldi!, Museum of Contemporary Art, N. Miami, FL.
• 2003: For Heaven’s Sake, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), North Miami, FL.
• 2002: The City of Damascus, Young At Art Museum, Davie, FL.
• 1993: Pablo Cano: Recent Assemblages, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 1989: The Magic Flute, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL. (The artist’s debut public musical marionette theater performance piece).
• 1981: Pablo Cano, C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD.

• 2026: Beyond the Pitch, Miami International Airport Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 2026: Anchors of Light, Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), North Miami, FL.
• 2026: Circular Reflections, Westchester Regional Library, Miami, FL.
• 2025: Circular Reflections, St. Thomas University, Miami, FL.
• 2021: The Art of Assemblage, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Ft Lauderdale, FL.
• 2018: The Miami Generation: Revisited, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, FL.
• 2015: Cuba Beyond the Horizon, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.
• 2010: arteamericas, Miami Beach Convention Center, Miami Beach, FL.
• 2002: The No-Show Show, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 2002: Cuban Contemporary Art, Sacred Heart University Gallery, Fairfield, CT.
• 2001: globe>miami<island, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL.
• 2001: From Modern to Contemporary: Cuban Art from the Permanent Collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.
• 1999: All of God’s Children Got Shoes, Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami, FL.
• 1997: Breaking Barriers, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
• 1995: Permanent Collection Exhibition, Cuban Museum of Art & Culture, Miami, FL.
• 1991–1993: Cuba-USA: The First Generation, Major Traveling National Museum Survey (Exhibited at: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; Fondo del Sol Visual Arts Center, Washington, DC; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL; The Art Museum at Florida International University, Miami, FL; and Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA).
• 1987–1989: Outside Cuba / Fuera de Cuba, Pivotal Multi-Year Traveling Museum Survey (Exhibited at: Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art [MoCHA], New York, NY; Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH; Ponce Museum of Art, Ponce, Puerto Rico; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL; and Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA).
• 1987: Carlos Alfonzo, Pablo Cano: New Work, Greene Gallery, Coral Gables, FL.
• 1987: Contemporary Screens, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL.
• 1983–1984: The Miami Generation: Nine Cuban-American Artists, Historical Generational Traveling Exhibition (Exhibited at: Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, Miami, FL; Meridian House International, Washington, DC; Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Philadelphia, PA; and University of South Florida Art Museum, Tampa, FL).
• 1976: Fine Arts Exhibition for the Festival de las Artes, Tamiami Park, Miami, FL.

• 1984–1986: Graduate Fellowship Award, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY.
• 1983: CINTAS Foundation Fellowship in Visual Arts, CINTAS Foundation / Institute of International Education, New York, NY. (Awarded to fund international visual arts research and creative development in Paris, France).
• Continuous: Individual Artist Grants and Public Art Commissions, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the City of North Miami, Miami, FL. (Continuous institutional project funding awarded to finance annual large-scale musical marionette stage productions).

• 2026: Rodez, Miguel. “Catálogo: Reflexiones Circulares.” InCUBAdora (March 24, 2026): A detailed overview summarizing the Circular Reflections contemporary art project, tracking the exhibition’s curation and documenting the full registry of participating visual artists within the Cuban diaspora.
• 2025: Rodez, Miguel. Circular Reflections: Cuban Art Documentation Project. Miami Gardens, FL: St. Thomas University Press, 2025. A comprehensive archival catalog documenting the initial participants of the exhibition, featuring an extensive analysis of the artist’s multi-material assemblages, biological profiles, and key milestone curriculum highlights.
• 2023: Suarez, Carlos. “The Kinetic, Trash-to-Treasure World of Pablo Cano.” The Miami Herald (May 14, 2023): A detailed critical evaluation tracking the technical scale of his Coral Gables Museum retrospective and his lifelong formal dedication to found-object engineering.
• 2011: Clear, Angela. Pablo Cano: In the Eye of the Recycler. North Miami: Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), 2011. A comprehensive museum monograph and publication tracking the artist’s multi-decade translation of municipal discard into fine art marionettes.
• 1997: Blanc, Giulio V. “The Sculptural Puppetry of Pablo Cano: An Interview.” Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 23 (Annual Issue, 1997): 212–225. An extensive scholarly dialogue detailing the conceptual core, European avant-garde influences, and studio practices of the artist.
• 1989: Kohen, Helen L. “Scrap-Metal Operatics: Pablo Cano’s Magic Flute.” The Miami Herald (November 3, 1989): C1. A critical gallery review evaluation marking the public premiere of his performance mechanics and his transition from static assemblage into functional performance theater.

• Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) (North Miami, FL).
• Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL).
• NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale (Fort Lauderdale, FL).
• The CINTAS Foundation Permanent Collection (Miami, FL).
• Miami-Dade Public Library System, Fine Arts Archive (Miami, FL).