ernesto ferrand

havana, cuba. 1968

Ernesto Ferrand began a formal study of graphic design at Havana’s Experimental School of Drawing and Printmaking in 1982 at the young age of 14. In 1991, he graduated from Cuba’s most prominent art school, San Alejandro Academy of Fine Art, with a degree in Printmaking and then went on to complete a 5 year graphic design degree at Instituto Superior de Diseño Industrial (ISDI) in Havana. Upon graduating, he launched his career as a graphic designer working as an assistant to Cuban painter Umberto Peña, as well as for established institutions such as Cuba’s Casa de las Americas, the Editorial Letras Cubanas and the Cuban Institute of Art and Industry Cinematography where he designed posters for Cuban films like Matador, Death of a Bureaucrat among others. His designs we also commissioned for the Festival of New Latin American Cinema in 1993.

His works have gained recognition and won awards internationally, as well as in his native Cuba, in multiple exhibitions and competitions including Premio Especial Ministerio de Cultura in the Salón Nacional de la Gráfica in 1997 in Havana, Cuba; and in 2000, First Prize at the Sixth International Poster Biennial in Mexico City.

His poster art and photographic work has been exhibited in different collective spaces globally including the 4th, 5th and 6th International Poster Biennial held at the Franz Mayer Museum. Mexico DF, the 2nd International Poster Exhibition: 2001 in Ningbo, China, PROPAGANDA! Cuban Political & Film Posters // 2003 AIGA in New York, Cuban Posters at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) 2004 in Spain, with a solo exhibition Nada Sostengo, Nada Se Sostiene at the Casa del Vino, 2011 in Rovereto, Italy. Also, Soy Cuba Exhibition, World Cinema Amsterdam, From 14 until 23-08-2015 in Amsterdam, Holland. La memoria diseñada Exhibition, 2018. Carteles ICAIC // 1960-2017 in Museo de Bellas Artes, Cuba. A exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA features posters about U.S. movies, Black with a Drop of Red: Contemporary Cuban Poster Work includes 29 posters and prints from a range of Cuban designers in Fowler’s Goldenberg Gallery // 2017. Artes de Cuba Exhibition 2018 at Kennedy Center, Washington DC. And, lastly, in Trento, Italia 2019, with a collective exhibition Cartel Cubano, 60 Anni Di Grafica Rivoluzionaria at Palazzo Delle Albere. In 2023, IL CINEMA NELLA GRAFICA CUBANA at Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in San Donà di Piave VE, Italy.