Carlos Alfonzo

Carlos Alfonzo (1950, 1991) was a Cuban-born American painter known for his intensely expressive, densely layered canvases that merged figuration with abstraction, drawing on Afro-Cuban spiritual traditions, surrealism, and personal trauma. His work, often charged with visceral energy and psychological tension, explored themes of identity, sexuality, exile, and mortality, particularly as he confronted his own HIV-positive diagnosis in his later years. Alfonzo emerged as a significant voice in Miami's art scene and gained broader recognition for his raw, symbolic imagery that bridged Latin American and North American artistic traditions.