Leandro Soto

Leandro Soto (born Leandro Soto Ortiz; March 1, 1956 – July 3, 2022) was a Cuban-American multidisciplinary visual/installation and performance artist.

He was also a set and costume designer for theater and film.

Soto studied at Escuela Nacional de Arte National Art Schools (Cuba) and Instituto Superior de Arte, University of Havana.

As an educator he taught and lectured at various Higher Education institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

Soto also founded a creative workshop, El Tesoro de Tamulte, in Tabasco, Mexico, from which professional artists emerged.

Soto was born on March 1, 1956, in Cienfuegos, Cuba, where he also spent his early life.

Soto was one of the leading figures of the influential “Volumen Uno”, an artistic movement that changed the course of Cuban Art in the decade of the 1980s, in which he was the first artist in his generation to work with the Afro-Cuban heritage.

He was also credited with being the first performance and installation artist on the island.

In his performances and the visual/installation art which emerged from his performances, Soto responded to the postmodern coordinates of implosion and satire, often subverting the inceptions of culturally accepted notions of high/kitsch, traditional/pop, global/local, and profane/sacred art forms.

Throughout his artistic career, he demonstrated an interest in religion, ritual, and the mythology of indigenous people.

Soto died July 3, 2022, in California.

Soto's work is held in a number of institutional collections, including: