Adriano Nicot

Adriano Adolfo Fernandez Nicot is a Cuban-American painter and poet based in Miami, Florida. He is known for a distinctive Neo-Expressionist style and is closely associated with the prominent Cuban artists Antonia Eiriz, Manuel Vidal Fernández, and Hilda Vidal Valdés. After becoming established in Cuba, Nicot relocated to the United States in the late 1990s. His work has since been featured in several books, exhibitions, and institutional collections in the US and in Latin America.

Background and early life

Nicot was born on October 9, 1964, in Havana, Cuba during the early years following the Cuban Revolution. His parents were both born in Cuba and shared recent European backgrounds. His father, Adriano Adolfo Fernández Santarén, was a Cuban financier from Havana whose parents arrived in Cuba from Leon, Spain. His mother, Margarita Nicot Verdecia, was a computer programmer born in Guantanamo, Cuba of French ancestry that had migrated to Puerto Rico before arriving in Cuba. His French heritage from his mother's family is significant for his descendance from Jean Nicot, after whom Nicotine is named. Per Spanish naming customs, both his paternal and maternal family names are used with his mother's family name appearing last. As he pursued his artistic career, his name would be simplified accordingly and he became known professionally as Adriano Nicot.
Nicot displayed an interest and inclination toward the arts early in his childhood and was supported by his parents in his artistic pursuits. In interviews Nicot has recounted that he began actively drawing and sketching by the age of five, after which his father would regularly provide him with sketching paper." A key moment in his artistic development came when Nicot was eight years old and had been found to draw on a wall of their residence. When asked by his father why he did this when he had ample sketching paper, Nicot explained that his artistic ideas were of too large a scale to convey on paper. Following this incident, Nicot’s father believed he had deeper potential as an artist and his parents subsequently enrolled him in art classes in Cuba’s Biblioteca Nacional later that year. There he began his formal training in the arts studying both art history as well as painting and sketching techniques. Another significant artistic influence in Nicot's early artistic development were his regular visits with his grandfather to the residence of famed Cuban artist René Portocarrero. There Nicot would observe his works and then attempt to imitate their styles after returning from the visits.

Art career

Following his regular studies at the Biblioteca Nacional, Nicot was also mentored by several prominent Cuban artists, including Antonia Eiriz and Manuel Vidal Fernández, both closely affiliated with the influential "Los Once" art group, as well as Vidal's second wife Hilda Vidal Valdes. Eiriz, a leading Cuban Expressionist, was a particularly strong influence on Nicot and the development of his own style. Eiriz was a neighbor of his in Havana and Nicot would visit her home regularly for private lessons in painting.
In addition to Nicot's association with Eiriz, the Vidals would also play a significant role in Nicot gaining visibility in his early career. Manuel Vidal first discovered Nicot when he encountered him sketching outdoors in Havana. After being impressed with his work, Vidal bought him canvases and used his network to help Nicot enroll into Cuba's premier fine arts educational institution, the Academy of San Alejandro, where he participated in the academy's Proyecto de Acción Integrada Cultural “Persona." As well-established figures in Cuba's visual arts community, the Vidals also helped secure and support Nicot's first solo and collective exhibitions and would exhibit alongside him to draw further attention. Manuel Vidal wrote the foreword to the catalog of Nicot's September 1994 exhibition Encuentros Cercanos while Hilda first exhibited alongside him the following year in the exhibition Mujer Multiple at Havana's Palacio de Convenciones. Also in 1994, Nicot was commissioned to paint a public art mural in the Casa de Cultura Centro in Havana. Another prominent instructor of Nicot was Belkis Ayon, who taught him engraving.
By the end of 1995 Nicot had graduated from the Academy of San Alejandro with majors in painting and engraving and had exhibited with both Vidals, Eiriz, and several other leading Cuban artists of the time. This would draw the attention of critics, gallerists, as well as collectors and pave the way to a string of exhibitions, his first awards, as well as further public art commissions before the close of the decade. Following the success of his early exhibitions, Nicot received a pair of scenographic commissions in 1998 for the Havana theatrical stage productions Mandragora and Blue Moon. In the Cuba period of his career, Nicot became a member of several influential arts institutions such as the Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales, La Brigada Hermanos Saiz, and also served as an arts instructor at the Centro Cultural de Yara.
Nicot and his family relocated to Miami in 1999 during Cuba's special period due to the political-artistic repression and censorship of the Castro regime. Upon relocating to South Florida, Nicot and his family joined the Cuban Exile Community and he immediately immersed himself in the robust Latin American art market of the region. After relocating to the United States, Nicot would become among the region's well-established fine art figures and continue exhibiting extensively, earning additional awards internationally, and other visibility for his art and creative projects, including the publication of his poetry.
In November 2020, Nicot proposed and initiated the “Brose Forever” group exhibition in honor of the late Cuban actress Broselianda Hernández to mark the first anniversary of her death. The exhibition was hosted and organized the following year by the Arte Libre group in collaboration with the North Miami Beach Library. “Brose Forever” featured over 40 international artists, including Nicot, from the United States, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, and Pakistan.
In 2021 Nicot participated in the nonprofit HATT Foundation’s fine art auction with artwork valued in excess of $13,000. The fundraiser was in support of the foundation's mission to assist under-served and at-risk children, underprivileged families, and senior citizens based in Florida.
In 2022 Nicot was selected to be featured in the Pompano Beach Cultural Center's Culture and Identity of Our America collective exhibition. The exhibition opened on October 14 as part of the Center's Hispanic Heritage Month activities in collaboration with the Latin American Art Pavilion.
In 2024 Nicot was selected to participate in the high profile Flora & Fauna exhibition, held in the former Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, making it Nicot's first exhibition in Tampa Bay. Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Flora & Fauna also featured other prominent artists including Josignacio and Edel Alvarez Galban, and received coverage from The Artisan Magazine and Diario Las Americas, as well as television coverage.
In December 2024 Nicot participated in the Art Basel-affiliated collective exhibition Forbidden Fruit. Held during Miami Art Week 2024, the event was also notable for being the world's largest documented exhibition of Cuban erotic art, spanning four generations of artists. Following the exhibition opening, Nicot's featured works were accepted into the permanent collection of the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach.
In 2025 Nicot produced the cover artwork for the poetry collection Con los pies en la tierra by Rolando Lorie, recipient of the 2017 Silver Pen from Entre Líneas Publications and past honoree of the UNESCO Cultural Center and the International Latino Book Awards.

Selected exhibitions

Nicot has been highly active in exhibiting his art at a range of venues and has participated in over sixty solo and collective art exhibitions in Cuba, the United States, and Peru since launching his professional art career in the early 1990s. Nicot's first solo exhibitions were the pair of shows titled La Violencia de las Horas I & II at Havana's Galeria Kahlo. The foreword to this first exhibition was written by another notable Cuban art figure, Carlos Guzman, director of Havana's Galeria Kahlo. As a member of the UNEAC, Manuel Vidal wrote the foreword to the catalog of Nicot's September 1994 exhibition Encuentros Cercanos.
Throughout his exhibition career Nicot has exhibited with several other notable Latin American artists, including Antonia Eiriz, Manuel Vidal, Hilda Vidal, Josignacio, Tomas Sanchez, Zaida del Rio, José Bedia, Belkis Ayon, Yamilet Sempe, Emilio Hector Rodriguez, Sandra Ceballos, Clara Morera, Carlos Artime, Miguel Fleitas, Miguel Rodez, Edel Alvarez Galban, and others. He has been curated by Hortensia Montero, Anthony Ardavin, Niten, Ana Juncadella Barbosa and David Fernández among others.
Since relocating to the United States Nicot has exhibited throughout Central and South Florida as well as in Connecticut and internationally in Cusco, Peru. He has also exhibited in high-profile venues such as Art Basel Miami, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Coral Gables Museum.

Selected individual exhibitions

2017 Rompiendo Marcos, Sarracino Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, US
2010 Absolute Adriano, Logo Projects in conjunction with Ocean Ophthalmology Group, Miami, FL, US.
2009 Diego Quispe Tito, Sala de Exposiciones Mariano Fuentes Lira de la Escuela Superior Autonoma de Bellas Artes, Cusco, Peru
2009 Current Works, Bakehouse Art Complex, Swenson Gallery, Miami, Florida, US.
2001 Current Works, Blue Angel Gallery, Miami, Florida, US.
1996 La Expresion del Jazz, Galeria Casa de la Cultura de Plaza, Havana, Cuba.
1995 Encuentros Cercanos, Galeria Arte 7 & Centro Cultural Cinematografico Yara, Havana, Cuba.
1994 La Violencia de las Horas, Galeria Kahlo and Facultad Internacional de Cine Radio y Television del Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana Cuba.