Ivonne Ferrer

Ivonne Ferrer masterfully balances classical refinement with contemporary critique, creating a clean yet deeply layered visual vocabulary that addresses the complexities of the diaspora. Her pristine technical execution seamlessly bridges fine art mediums, employing silkscreen on canvas, mixed media assemblages, ceramics, and textiles to create striking, balanced compositions. In her work, ancient European architecture and vintage American advertising icons coexist in harmony, serving as a backdrop for her signature female protagonists who command the canvas with poise and authority. By subverting familiar commercial imagery, Ferrer speaks directly to themes of memory and displacement with a sophisticated intellect and sharp humor, transforming vulnerable personal histories into timeless testaments of universal human resilience.

• Academic Foundations: Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1968. She began her structured artistic education at the Creative Expression Group in 1978, followed by early foundational fine arts training at the 20 de Octubre Elementary Fine Art School, finishing in 1981. She then entered the historic San Alejandro National Academy of Fine Arts, graduating with her specialized degree in 1984. Recognizing the intersection of conceptual graphic production and painterly practice, she pursued higher studio education at the René Portocarrero National Silk-Screen Printing Workshop in Havana, completing her post-graduate graphic specialization in 1989.
• Institutional Service & Parallel Disciplines: Following her academic training, Ferrer utilized her specialized understanding of material stability and history to serve as a professional restorer of sculpture and painting for the Museum of the City of Havana. This intense, immersive engagement with historic architectural sites, deteriorating colonial artifacts, and classical preservation methodologies directly informed her structural eye, spatial multi-layering, and conceptual fascination with institutional memory.
• Exile, Translocation & Relocations: In 1990, immediately after her provocative breakout debut solo show in Havana, Ferrer made the definitive choice to leave the island and enter political exile. She initially resettled in Madrid, Spain, spending five critical developmental years integrating into the European artistic circuit through major solo showcases, traveling exhibitions, and specialized printmaking workshops across Seville, Barcelona, Granada, and Girona. In 1995, she executed a second major translocation by emigrating to the United States, choosing a permanent geographic settlement path in Miami, Florida.
• Current Status: She operates a highly active studio practice moving between Spain, international showcase networks, and South Florida, participating in contemporary fine art exhibitions while serving as an instructor and institutional mentor at the Fine Arts Ceramic Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA).

• 2020–Present: Director and Master Ceramics Instructor, Fine Art Ceramic Center, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA), Miami, FL.
• 2018: Guest Portfolio Mentor and Studio Workshop Instructor, Kendall Art Center, Miami, FL.
• 2014: Faculty Workshop Facilitator, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami, FL.

• Metonymy, Satire & Female Protagonists: A continuous, career-defining portfolio populated by historically sourced female figures who are placed inside bizarre or dangerous dilemmas, emerging not as victims but as empowered, comic, and political warriors.
• (R) Evolution Comics & Graphic Propaganda: A standalone concept portfolio utilizing the visual shorthand of mid-century North American consumer advertising, vintage auto schematics, and structural conquest engravings to analyze societal disillusionment and the commodification of memory.

This artist has participated in numerous solo exhibitions, including the following:

• 2024: Domina, SB Architects, Coral Gables, FL.
• 2023: Compendium, Marco Island Center for the Arts, Marco Island, FL.
• 2019: Sex, Design and Metonymy / Art Attack, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA), Miami, FL.
• 2012: (R) Evolution Comics, Aluna Art Foundation, Miami, FL.
• 2001: ivonne.com, Durban Segnini Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 1996: Trinomio Cubano, Botello Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• 1994: Fisiología Decorativa, Taller 4, Granada, Spain.
• 1993: La Temperatura de Dios, Lux Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
• 1990: Atribuciones, Fidelio Ponce de León Gallery, Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales (FCBC), Havana, Cuba.

This artist has participated in numerous collective exhibitions, including the following:

• 2026: Circular Reflections, Westchester Regional Library, Miami, FL.
• 2025: Circular Reflections, St. Thomas University, Miami, FL.
• 2024: Confidencias, Museo Municipal de Cartago, Cartago, Costa Rica.
• 2024: Feria de Arte Venezia 24, Scuola Grande San Teodoro, Venice, Italy.
• 2024: Candle Lights, Artefactus Gallery, Miami, FL.
• 2024: Healing Goddesses II, Doral Cultural Arts Center, Doral, FL.
• 2023: The American Denim, MIFA Gallery (in collaboration with FAMA), Miami, FL.
• 2023: Artistic License III, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, FL.
• 2023: Color Culture: Our History and Heritage Through Fiber, The Thousand Islands Arts Center (in collaboration with FAMA), Clayton, New York, USA.
• 2023: Unlikely Assemblages, The Annex Gallery (as part of NCECA), Cincinnati, Oh.
• 2023: Halando parejo, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, FL.
• 2023: Women of Vision, Doral Contemporary Art Museum (DORCAM), Doral, FL.
• 2023: The World is a Handkerchief, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, FL.
• 2023: Komuna Inspiro, 7 Plus One Art Project, Reverend Jorge A. Sardiñas Gallery, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL.
• 2023: A mí me manda Carmen, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA), Miami, FL.
• 2022: Subverting Materials: Textile and Fiber Art by Women Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) (as part of Threading the City, organized by FAMA), Miami, FL.
• 2022: Beyond the Plate: Contemporary Ceramics, The Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS), Edward E. and Jane B. Ford Gallery, Daytona, FL.
• 2022: Crossing Borders: Artists from the Middle East & the Americas, Miami Dade College Museum of Art and Design (MOAD), Miami, FL.
• 2022: Women Artists in the Rodriguez Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA), Miami, FL.
• 2021: Family Ties, Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas, Miami, FL.
• 2021: Cuban Tres, The Annex Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio.
• 2021: Women Artists in the Rodriguez Collection, The Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS), Daytona, FL.
• 2020: Eje Textil, Museo del Reciclaje, Hatillo, Puerto Rico.
• 2020: Crosscurrents: Contemporary Selections from the Rodriguez Collection, Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL.
• 2019: Hilo: Textil en el Arte Contemporáneo, Galería de Arte UPR, Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

• 2014: Academic Chair Distinction, Miami-Dade County Public Schools Division of Academic Support, Miami, FL, USA.
• 1998: Key to the City Award, Cape Canaveral Municipality Administration, Cape Canaveral, FL, USA.

• 2026: Ángel Roca, Circular Reflections: Dissolving the Corners of the Cuban Narrative. Artepoli, Adobe Publish Online. Accessed June 26, 2026. #48, pp. 6- 12, https://indd.adobe.com/view/b45f88cb-0716-45ce-8f3d-33b0a9d5d295. The article highlights this artist’s artwork from an exhibition of 80 global Cuban masters.
• 2026: Catálogo: Reflexiones Circulares [Curaduría: Miguel Rodez]. InCUBAdora, March 24, 2026. https://www.in-cubadora.com/2026/03/24/catalogo-reflexionescirculares-curaduria-miguel-rodez/. This Spanish-language article concisely summarizes the Cuban contemporary art documentation project, Circular Reflections, and includes the complete artist roster.
• 2025: Rodez, Miguel. Circular Reflections: Cuban Art Documentation Project. Miami Gardens, FL: St. Thomas University Press, 2025. Permanent collection, Miami-Dade Public Library System, Fine Arts Archive. (A comprehensive catalog featuring information about the 63 initial participants in Circular Reflections, including an analysis of the artist’s work, biographical information and curriculum highlights).
• 2024: Damian, Carol. “The Creative Imagination of Ivonne Ferrer.” Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas Critical Review Series (March 2024): A rigorous critical breakdown of Ferrer's meticulous draftsmanship, assessing how her academic training in Havana serves as the foundation for her surrealist parodies.
• 2021: Museum of Arts and Sciences Editorial Staff. “Women Artists in the Rodriguez Collection.” Museum of Arts and Sciences Exhibition Catalogues (November 2021): A comprehensive historical and visual text volume evaluating her stylistic evolutions and material experiments across the South Florida diaspora.
• 2020: Pau-Llosa, Ricardo. “Metonymy in Overdrive: Ivonne Ferrer and the Art of the Unconscious.” Contemporary Latin American Master Essays (May 2020): An evaluation tracking her stylistic transitions from early island isolation to the pop-inflected anxieties of the South Florida diaspora.
• 1995–Present: Art Desk Editors. “Artes y Letras Collective Reviews.” El Nuevo Herald / The Miami Herald(Continuous Archive Records): Continuous historical press documentation and critical columns tracking her fine art transitions, regional exhibition openings, and graphic style shifts across South Florida.

• Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) Permanent Collection (Long Beach, California, USA).
• Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS) Permanent Contemporary Collection (Daytona, Florida, USA).
• Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas (MoCAA) Permanent Archive (Miami, Florida, USA).
• The Rodríguez Collection Permanent Fine Arts Archive (Miami, Florida, USA).
• María Zambrano Foundation Permanent Archive (Málaga, Spain).
• Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation Collection (Valladolid, Spain).
• Casa de Galicia en Madrid Permanent Registry (Madrid, Spain).