(b Havana, 16 April 1951). Cuban painter and printmaker, active in the USA. He arrived in the USA in 1960 and grew up in Philadelphia, PA. He obtained his BFA from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1973 and his MFA from the University of South Florida, Tampa, in 1978. He came from an artistic family, and in his work he drew successfully on his dual Latin- and North-American legacies. From North America he derived his cultivation of constructed and flat, painted surfaces, a legacy of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism. From Latin America he derived a love of signs and a preoccupation with the functions of language, pioneered by Joaqu?n Torres Garc?a. Mateo's abstractions, for example Untitled (1986; see 1987-8 exh. cat., p. 11), are in his words about the '"grammar" of rhythm and process' in the plastic sense, and how 'the limitations of a physical space can determine structure and form'.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
.jpg){kind=small}
