José Yaque Takes Paris: Cuba at Galleria Continua

The Parisian Marais pulses with the colors of Cuba. From January 16 through March 10, 2026, Cuban artist José Yaque presents “Vibraciones” at Galleria Continua, an exhibition that transforms the gallery into a sensory experience where the Caribbean meets the boldest contemporary art.

From Manzanillo to the World

José Eduardo Yaque Llorente was born in 1985 in Manzanillo, that city on Cuba’s eastern coast that has produced generations of internationally renowned artists. There, between sea and mountain, nature became his permanent obsession.

He first studied at the “Carlos Enríquez” Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown, then at the prestigious Higher Institute of Art (ISA) in Havana, graduating in 2011. Today he lives and works between Havana and Madrid, but has never stopped looking toward his eastern roots.

An Exhibition You Walk Through

“Vibraciones” is not an exhibition to observe from afar. The gallery has been divided into three sections that dialogue with each other, inviting visitors to literally immerse themselves in the work.

Maturation: The Buried Aliñao

The first piece greeting visitors is “Maturation” (2018): a mound of earth with eighteen large jars of aliñao buried partially or completely. Aliñao is a traditional liqueur from eastern Cuba—a blend of aguardiente with herbs, honey, and spices—that Cuban families bury when a child is born, to be unearthed years later at their coming of age or wedding.

It is deep, ritual, intimate Cuba. Yaque brings it to Paris as a reminder that all true art has roots.

Drawings and Vegetation

Alongside the installation, a series of abstract charcoal drawings from 2020 reveal another side of Yaque: meditation on pure form. And in a corner, nearly two hundred glass jars contain vegetation from the mountains of Madrid in various stages of decomposition.

The River of Color

But the climax comes in the final room. Here, a river of paint spills across the gallery floor in a chromatic explosion: blues, reds, yellows, greens that blend and flow as if the earth had vomited its most precious minerals.

Yaque’s paintings—created by applying thick layers of acrylic and enamel with his hands, covering them with plastic, and slowly manipulating the surface—evoke molten rock, geological strata, aerial views of landscapes. There’s something performative in his process: a dance between the artist’s body, the paint, and the forces of nature.

An Artist in the World’s Best Collections

Yaque’s trajectory speaks for itself. His works are in the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands, the Zachęta National Gallery in Warsaw, the CAB Foundation in Brussels, and the Fundación Los Carbonell in Panama.

He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2017, Cuban Pavilion), at Art Basel Unlimited (2018)—where he presented 3,000 illuminated glass bottles filled with decomposing plant residue—and in galleries in London, Vienna, Glasgow, Warsaw, and San Gimignano.

Represented by Galleria Continua and David Gill Gallery, Yaque is part of that new generation of Cuban artists redefining what it means to make art from and about Cuba.

Free Visit in the Heart of Paris

The exhibition “Vibraciones” is open to the public until March 10, 2026 at Galleria Continua Paris, in the historic Marais district. Admission is free.

For Cubans in the diaspora and anyone who wants to feel the pulse of the island’s contemporary art, this is a unique opportunity to walk—literally—over a river of color that springs from Manzanillo and flows into the streets of Paris.

Galleria Continua - Paris Marais
41 rue du Temple, 75004 Paris
Until March 10, 2026
Free admission