Fernando Ureña Rib

''Fernando Ureña Rib is a modern painter. He is a universal artist, and part of that universality lies in the unabashed sensuality of his paintings.

They are permeated with sexual energy that speaks to every one on a subtle level, seducing the viewer almost against his will. Whether they are the erotic studies of nudes, or the ascending oblong forms of his Abstract Paintings.

These works appeal to our senses. His canvases are like large windows into another world, alien and yet disturbingly atavistic, demanding a second look. The shapes in Ureña Rib's canvases are alive, changing positions ever so slightly, there! Didn't that floating molecule of light just move?

The forms of Ureña Rib's works are born of a talent that is as spontaneous as it is organized. Brought up on classical Art and having done his share of figurative studies, the artist allowed his natural expression to find nourishment in that experience, grow and transform like living organism.

That exchange creates the movement found in Ureña Rib's art. The shapes, although Abstract, seem to be in a process of constant transformation, shifting and undulating with languid tranquility. Primitive as they may be with their molecular, smooth bodies, these forms are far from simple.

Their effect is powerful.

Beauty is a word critic should use with caution, and a soupcon of doubt. But Ureña Rib's paintings are beautiful in the abundance of impressions they provide, from the purely visual to the deeply psychological. They are doorways for us to walk through and discover "the importance of the small, forgotten things" and appreciate this generous artist who has breathed new life into our reality. ''

Dorota KozinskaFernando Ureña Rib is the Founder and Director of Latin Art Museum, the most importat and complete website in the Art od the Dominican Republic.

Nació en la Romana, República Dominicana el 21 de marzo de 1951. Inició sus estudios de pintura en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Francisco de Macorís en 1963 obteniendo una beca del Estado para continuar sus estudios en la Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes en 1968, donde concluye con talleres de pintura al Óleo y pintura mural bajo la guía del maestro dominicano de la pintura, Jaime Colson.
Se gradúa como Bachiller en Filosofía y Letras en 1968 y realiza estudios de lenguas extranjeras en la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. Ureña Rib donde aprende Inglés, Francés, Alemán e Italiano.

Ureña Rib ha sido presidente del Colegio Dominicano de Artistas Plásticos donde realizó una intensa tarea cultural, de re estructuración interna y de relaciones públicas. En esa ocasión presentó mas de veinte exposiciones individuales de artistas dominicanos importantes.

Ureña Rib ha publicado cuentos: FÁBULAS URBANAS, EL OLOR DE LAS YEGUAS Y el libro monográfico DECIR LA PIEL, O LAS DISCRETAS ORGÍAS DEL SILENCIO.

Es miembro de AICA, la Asociación Internacional de Críticos de Arte, con sede en París y de la AIAAP, la Asociación Internacional de Artistas Plásticos. Es colaborador de los periódicos Ultima Hora, Listín Diario y El Siglo.

En el 2003 Ureña Rib es artista invitado de la Bienal Internacional del Cairo y en el 2004 es invitado a exponer sus obras en la Sala de Exposiciones "Carlos Vaz Ferreira" - Biblioteca Nacional- Dirección de Cultura, Montevideo, Uruguay.