Margarita Cano collection

Margarita Cano is an artist and librarian born in Havana, Cuba on February 27, 1932 to Rafael Fernández Ruenes, an architect, and Margarita Villaurrutia Suarez. Cano attended the Ruston Academy, a bilingual American school in Havana, and earned degrees in physics and chemistry from the University of Havana in 1956. She worked at the Havana National Museum and at the Julio Lobo Napoleon Museum and obtained a Master of Library Science (MLIS) from the University of Havana in 1961. Cano migrated to the U.S. in October of 1962 and settled in Miami, Florida with her family. When she arrived in Miami, she recalled in a 2019 interview, the city was still lacking in cultural events and institutions, that there were only three art museums, and no full seasons of ballet or opera performances. This was all to change in the following decades and Cano played a large role in the city’s cultural development.

Cano worked at the Miami-Dade Public Library as a Community Relations and Art Services Coordinator for 29 years. She organized arts programs that highlighted the work of African-American and Cuban-American artists. Her efforts resulted in the establishment of a substantial, permanent art collection at the library. In 1977, Cano acted as project coordinator and organized the first exhibition of works by the CINTAS fellows at Miami-Dade Public Libraries. The show exhibited 57 pieces by Cuban artists living in the United States, as well as Spain, France, Puerto Rico and Colombia. Cano was also instrumental in organizing the 1983 exhibition “Nine Cuban-American Artists, The Miami Generation,” which traveled to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, while she was serving on the board of directors of the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture. Cano was also part of the group that founded the now renowned Miami Book Fair.

Cano’s son Pablo Cano (b.1961), a prominent Miami-based artist, cites his mother and father Pablo Cano, a musician, as inspiration for his career in the arts. His large post-Byzatine style painting, Saint Sebastiana, was shown at “The Miami Generation'' exhibition. He also was a CINTAS fellow in visual arts from 1983-84. His work is housed in several permanent collections, including at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum.

Upon her retirement in 1993, her art practice became more than just an enjoyable hobby. She began developing a unique art style, painting portraits of family and religious figures like virgins, saints, angels and archangels, memories of Cuba, still life paintings, and landscapes, and creating hundreds of unique artist books based on the medieval Illuminated Manuscripts such as The Book of Hours. She says: "My paintings are a window into a dream world of memories which are unattainable but become alive in my pictorial narratives. With metaphors and allegories I retell the story of Cuba so close to us and yet so far away. I will continue my quest in pursuit of a happy closure to this never ending saga." Her works have also been described as “creating interaction between the sacred and the mundane” and “creating tension between surface ornamentation and three-dimensionality is enhanced by the rich jewel-like finish that belies the presence of the brush, which strengthens the narrative content of the work.” And that, “it is in the storytelling that Cano invites the viewer to partake of her memory and her magic.” Cano’s works have been featured in a number of solo exhibitions including “Dreaming Cuba” at the Gallery of the Eccentric in Coral Gables in 1993, “Visions And Definitions” at Cultural Resource Center in Miami in 1998, “Transcending Exile” at the Coral Gables Library in 2003, “Cuba-Paradise Lost” at Books and Books in Coral Gables and the Connors Rosato Gallery in New York in 2005, “Memories and Metaphors” at Oñate Fine Art in Miami in 2006, “Images and Memories” at Cremata Fine Art in Miami in 2007, “Divine Presence/ Presencia Divina” at Viota Gallery in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2008, and “Explorations” at Miami Dade Public Library Main Library in 2016. Her work has also appeared in numerous group exhibitions in South Florida and Puerto Rico including at the University of Miami Libraries. In her artist statement, Cano writes: “My Cuban roots are reflected in my art work. It tells and retells my personal vision of Cuba. Installations of my painting visually narrate the Cuban drama: an island frozen in time surrounded by a seawall where Cubans wait for change. I document this quest for democracy and freedom through allegories and metaphors.”

In 2009, Cano was honored for her role in establishing a permanent, major art collection of Cuban American art for the Miami-Dade Public Library system and for her participation on the Board of CINTAS and commitment to the foundation for more than three decades. Hortensia Sampedro, the President of the CINTAS Board, said: “Margarita Cano has dedicated her life to the arts and has worked selflessly for the benefit of Cuban artists… in promoting the fellowships and the works of art of the fellows in numerous exhibitions.”

She is the author and illustrator of books for children, including Isabel y Su Cama Nueva (2014) and Isabel y Su Gato Coco (2008) and stresses the importance of children’s literacy and creative expression.

Most recently, in 2019 Cano’s artists books have been displayed in exhibitions at LNS Gallery in Miami as part of the “Artful Book 2019” as well as at the “Spheres of Meaning: An Exhibition of Artist Books” at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University.