Born in 1960 in Holguín, Cuba
Lives and works in Havana, Cuba
Art x Cuba. Contemporary perspectives since 1989 = Kunst x Kuba. Zeitgenössische Positionen seit 1989 = Arte x Cuba. Perspectivas contemporáneas desde 1989. Exhibition catalogue, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany, September 8, 2017 - February 18, 2018, curated by Andreas Beitin, and Tonel. With texts by Luis Camnitzer, Elsa Vega, Sujatha Fernandes, Jacqueline Loss, Roberto Zurbano (et al.). Cologne, Wienand, 2018.
Adiós utopia. Art in Cuba since 1950. Exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 5 - May 21, 2017, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA, November 11, 2017 - March 18, 2018. Edited by Ana Clara Silva, and Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, with texts by Rachel Weiss, Elsa Vega, Beatriz Gago Rodríguez, Tonel, René Francisco, Gerardo Mosquera, and Iván de la Nuez. Miami, CIFO - Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, 2017.
Adiós utopia. Arte en Cuba desde 1950. Exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 5 - May 21, 2017, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA, November 11, 2017 - March 18, 2018. Edited by Ana Clara Silva, and Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, with texts by Rachel Weiss, Elsa Vega, Beatriz Gago Rodríguez, Tonel, René Francisco, Gerardo Mosquera, and Iván de la Nuez. Miami, CIFO - Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, 2017.
Cuba. Tatuare la storia. Exhibition catalogue, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea PAC, Milano, July 5 - September, 12, 2016, Zisa Arti Contemporanee ZAC, Palermo, Italy, October 7 - December 18, 2016. Edited by Diego Sileo, and Giacomo Zaza, with texts by Diego Sileo, Giacomo Zaza, Giulia Ingarao, Antonio Leone, and Antonio Eligio (Tonel). Milano, Silvana, 2016.
Caderno de exercícios pedagógicos. Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. Art education booklet. With texts by Bia Jabor, Luis Camnitzer, María del Carmen González, Sofía Quirós. Rio de Janeiro, Casa Daros, 2015.
Cuaderno de ejercícios pedagógicos. Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. Art education booklet. With texts by Bia Jabor, Luis Camnitzer, María del Carmen González, Sofía Quirós. Rio de Janeiro, Casa Daros, 2015.
Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. A selection of Cuban art form the Daros Latinamerica Collection. Exhibition catalogue, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, September, 9 - December 13, 2015. Edited by Katrin Steffen, with texts by Hans Michael Herzog, Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, Tonel, Orlando Britto Jinorio, Luis Camnitzer, Orlando Hernández, and Juan Antonio Molina. Zürich, Daros Latinamerica, 2015.
Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. Uma seleção de arte cubana da coleção Daros Latinamerica. Exhibition catalogue, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, September, 9 - December 13, 2015. Edited by Katrin Steffen, with texts by Hans Michael Herzog, Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, Tonel, Orlando Britto Jinorio, Luis Camnitzer, Orlando Hernández, and Juan Antonio Molina. Zürich, Daros Latinamerica, 2015.
Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. Una selección de arte cubano de la colección Daros Latinamerica. Exhibition catalogue, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, September, 9 - December 13, 2015. Edited by Katrin Steffen, with texts by Hans Michael Herzog, Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, Tonel, Orlando Britto Jinorio, Luis Camnitzer, Orlando Hernández, and Juan Antonio Molina. Zürich, Daros Latinamerica, 2015.
Dark Mirror. Art from Latinamerica since 1968. Works from the Daros Latinamerica Collection. Exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, September 26, 2015 - January 31, 2016. Edited by Ralf Beil and Holger Broeker. Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2015.
Dark Mirror. Lateinamerikanische Kunst seit 1968. Werke aus der Daros Latinamerica Collection. Exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, September 26, 2015 - January 31, 2016. Edited by Ralf Beil and Holger Broeker. Wolfsburg, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2015.
Notebook of pedagocical exercises. Cuba - Ficción y Fantasía. Art education booklet. With texts by Bia Jabor, Luis Camnitzer, María del Carmen González, Sofía Quirós. Rio de Janeiro, Casa Daros, 2015.
Fazer ver a pintura. Encontros 3. Fabian Marcaccio, Paintant stories. Luiz Zerbini. Guillermo Kuitca / Eduardo Berliner. Vânia Mignone / René Francisco Rodríguez. Art education publication accompanying the exhibitions at Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, March 29 - August 10, 2014. With texts by Bia Jabor, Roberta Condeixa, Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, and an interview with Fabian Marcaccio by Hans-Michael Herzog (2005). Rio de Janeiro, Casa Daros, 2014.
Permission to be global. Latin American art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection = Prácticas globales. Exhibition catalogue, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA, December 4, 2013 - February 23, 2014, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA, March 19 - July 13, 2014. With a conversation between Jen mergel, Liz Munsell and Jesús Fuenmayor. Miami, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, 2013.
René Francisco Rodríguez. Work in progress. Beijing. 2012/07 - 2012/09. Exhibition catalogue, Xin Dong Cheng Space for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, July - September, 2012. With a text by Juan Carlos Betancourt. Beijing, China, Xin Dong Cheng Publishing House, 2013.
Caviar with rum. Cuba-USSR and the post-Soviet experience. Edited by Jacqueline Loss and José Manuel Prieto. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
Berger, Sebastiaan A.C.. Cuba. Arte contemporáneo = Cuba. Contemporary art. La Habana, Ceiba / Madrid, Turner, 2012.
Entre trópicos 46°05'. Exhibition catalogue, Caixa Cultural, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2012. With texts by Ibis Hernández Abascal and Maris Flórido Cesar. Rio de Janeiro, Caixa Cultural, 2012.
Oncena Bienal de La Habana. Prácticas artísticas e imaginarios sociales. Exhibition catalogue, Centro de arte contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba, May 11 - June 11, 2012. With texts by Jorge Fernández Torres, Francisco Jarauta, Boris Groys, and Dannys Montes de Oca (et al.). La Habana, Artecubano Ediciones / San Marino, Maretti Editore, 2012.
Weiss, Rachel. To and from utopia in the new Cuban art. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2011.
René Francisco. Intérprete. Exposición colateral / 10ma Bienal de La Habana. Exhibition catalogue, Galería Villa Manuela, Bienal de La Habana, Cuba, March 27 - April 30, 2009. With texts by Tonel and the artist. La Habana, Galería Villa Manuela, 2009.
Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art 2. Exhibition catalogue, Thessaloniki Biennale, May 21 - September 30, 2007. With texts by Catherine David, Jan-Erik Lundström (et al.). Thessaloniki, State Museum of Contemporary Art, 2009.
Marinelli, Claudio. Una colección de arte cubano. Selección, análisis, opiniones, polémicas y aventuras de un coleccionista. Caracas, Editemos, 2009.
Killing Time. An exhibition of Cuban artistas from the 1980s to the present. Exhibition catalogue, Exit Art, New York, May 12 - July 28, 2007. With texts by Papo Colo, Elvis Fuentes, Glexis Novoa, and Yuneikys Villalonga. New York, Exit Art, 2008.
Santana, Andrés Isaac (ed.). Nosotros los más infieles. Narraciones críticas sobre el arte cubano (1993-2005). Murcia, Cendeac, 2008.
Pabellón Cuba. 4D - 4 Dimensions. 4 Decades. Exhibtion catalogue, La Habana, Cuba, 8th Biennial 2003. With texts by Eugenio Valdés Figueroa, Tonel, Manuel Piña (et al.). Berlin, b_books, 2008.
René Francisco Rodríguez. Historias cruzadas. Exhibition catalogue, Pan American Art Projects, Miami, USA, October - November 2008. With texts by Píter Ortega Núñez and Irina Leyva-Perez. Miami, Pan American Art Projects, 2008.
René Francisco. Agua benita. With a text by the artist. La Habana, [s.n.], 2008.
Cuba Avant-Garde. Contemporary Cuban art from the Farber collection / Cuba Avant-Garde. Arte contemporáneo cubano de la colección Farber. Exhibition catalogue, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida, USA, May 9 - September 9, 2007. With texts by Magda Gónzalez-Mora Alfonso, Kerry Oliver-Smith (et al.). Gainesville, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, 2007.
La Biennale di Venezia. 52. Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte. Think with the senses - feel with the mind. Art in the present tense. Vol. II. Participating countries, collateral events. Exhibition catalogue, Biennale di Venezia, Italy, June 10 - November 21, 2007. With texts by Davide Croff, Simon Njami et al. Venezia, Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, 2007.
La era de la discrepancia. Arte y cultura visual en México 1968-1997 = The age of discrepancies. Art and visual culture in Mexico 1968-1997. Exhibition catalogue. Museo Universitário de Ciencias y Artes (MUCA Campus), February 24 - September 30, 2007. With texts by Olivier Debroise, Cuauthémoc Medina (et al.). Mexico City, Turner; UNAM, 2007.
Territorios. Exhibition catalogue, 52th Venice Biennial, Latinamerican Pavillion, June 10 - November 21, 2007. With texts by Irma Arestizábal et al. Rome, iila - Istituto Italo Latino-Americano, 2007.
Fernandes, Sujatha. Cuba Represent!: Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of New Revolutionary Cultures. Durham/London, Duke University Press, 2006.
Espinosa, Magaly. El nuevo arte cubano. Antología de textos críticos. Santa Monica, Perceval Press, 2006.
Göltenboth, Nathalie. Kunst und Kult in Kuba. Berlin, Reimer, 2006.
Patio de Nin. René Francisco. La Habana, Miramar Trade Center, 2006.
26a Bienal de São Paulo. Artistas convidados [invited artists]. Exhibition catalogue, 26th São Paulo Biennial, September 25 - December 19, 2004. With texts by Alfons Hug (et al.). São Paulo, Fundação Bienal, 2004.
Erjavec, Ales (ed.). Postmodernism and the postsocialist condition. Politicized art under late socialism. With texts by Gerardo Mosquera (et al.). Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003.
René Francisco Rodríguez. Ajuste de cuentas. Exhibition catalogue, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, La Habana, November 2003. With a text by Hortensia Montero. La Habana, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2003.
Brugal, Yana Elsa, and Beatriz J. Rizk. Rito y representación. Los sistemas mágico-religiosos en la cultura cubana contemporánea. Madrid, Iberoamericana, 2003.
Sentido común. Exhibition catalogue, Galería Habana, La Habana, Cuba, March 2003. With texts by René Francisco (et al.). La Habana, Galería Habana, 2003.
Block, Holly. Art Cuba. The New Generation. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Nexo. Encuentros de artistas jóvenes de América Latina y España 2000-2001. Exhibition catalogue, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, España, Panamá, Perú, Paraguay, Venezuela, 2001. With texts by Gerardo Mosquera, María Luz Cárdenas (et al.). Bogotá, Convenio Andrés Bello, 2001.
René Francisco. Tubosutra. Exhibition catalogue, Museum Goch, September 23 - November 25, 2001. With texts by Stephan Mann (et al.). Goch, Museum Goch, 2001.
Séptima Bienal de la Habana. Uno más cerca del otro. Exhibition catalogue, Bienal de La Habana, Cuba, November 2000 - January 2001. With texts by Nelson Herrera Ysla, Sara Vega, Alicia García (et al.). La Habana, Consejo Nacional de las Artes Plásticas, 2000.
Herzog, Samuel. Total global. Umgang mit nicht-westlicher Kunst. Dritte Runde: Schwerpunkt Kuba. With texts by Samuel Herzog, Helmo Hernández Trejo, Sabine Vogel, And Gerhard Haupt. Basel, Christoph Merian Verlag, 2000.
Arte cubano. Más allá del papel. Exhibition catalogue, Fundación Caja, Madrid, Centro del Arte Wifredo Lam, Cuba. With texts by Llilian Llanes, Antonio Zaya and José Manuel Noceda Fernández. Madrid, Fundación Caja, 1999.
Cuba. Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and survival on the utopian island = Arte Contemporáneo de Cuba: Ironía y sobrevivencia en la isla utópica. Exhibition catalogue, Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, September 26 - December 13, 1998, Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, January 15 - May 2, 1999, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, June 5 - August 15, 1999, Austin Museum of Art, September 4 - November 14, 1999, Grand Rapids Art Museum, February 1 - April 23, 2000, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA, May 19 - July 28, 2000, University Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA, October 10 - December 16, 2000, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, January through March 2001. Edited by Marilyn A. Zeitlin, with essays by Gerardo Mosquera and Tonel. Tempe, Arizona State University Art Museum; New York, Delano Greenidge Editions, 1999.
La Biennale di Venezia. XLVIII Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte.. Exhibition catalogue, 48th Venice Biennial, June 12 - November 7, 1999. With a text by Bernardino Osio (et al.). Roma, Instituto Italo-Latinoamericano, 1999.
La dirección de la mirada. Neue Kunst aus Kuba = Art actuel de Cuba = Arte cubano contemporáneo. Exhibition catalogue, Stadthaus Zurich, September 2 - October 30, 1998, Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, November 8, 1998 - January 3, 1999. Edited by Ines Anselmi and Eugenio Valdés Figueroa and with texts by Gerardo Mosquera (et al.). Vienna/New York, Springer, 1999.
II salón de arte cubano contemporáneo. Exhibition catalogue, II. Salon de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, La Habana, 1998. With texts by Caridad Blanco (et al.). La Habana, Centro de Desarollo de las Artes Visuales, 1998.
Primera Bienal Iberoamericana de Lima. Exhibition catalogue. With a text by Luis Lama. Lima, Tele 2000, 1997.
Sexta Bienal de La Habana. El individuo y su memoria / L'individu et sa mémoire. Exhibition catalogue, 6th Habana Biennial, Centro Wifredo Lam, La Habana, Cuba, May-June 1997. Edited by Nelson Herrera Ysla, with texts by Miguel Barnet (et al.). Paris, Association Française d'Action Artistique / La Habana, Centro Wifredo Lam, 1997.
Utopian territories. New art from Cuba. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and six other galleries in Vancouver, 1997. With texts by Eugenio Valdés Figueroa (et al.). Vancouver, Contemporary Art Gallery, 1997.
1er.salón de arte cubano contemporáneo. Exhibition catalogue, I. Salon de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo, La Habana, November 15, 1995 - January 15, 1996. With texts by Yolanda Wood and Rufo Caballero. La Habana, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1995.
Die 5. Biennale von Havanna. Kunst, Gesellschaft, Reflexion. Eine Auswahl. Exhibition catalogue, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, September 15 - December 11, 1994. With texts by Wolfgang Becker and Llilian Llanes, with contributions by Nelson Herrera Ysla (et al.). Aachen, Thouet Verlag, 1994.
Quinta Bienal de la Habana. Arte, Sociedad, Reflexión. Exhibition catalogue, 5th Habana Biennial, Centro Wifredo Lam, May 1994. With texts by Nelson Herrera Ysla (et al.). Madrid, Tabapress S.A., 1994.
Vuelo. Ponjuán und René Francisco. Exhibition catalogue, ifa-Galerie, Berlin, August 19 - September 25, 1994. With a text by Gerhard Haupt. Berlin, ifa-Galerie, 1994.