Considered the highest prize given to visual arts exponents on the island, Manuel Hernandez, Jose Manuel Fors, Alexis Leyva (Kcho), Jose Angel Toirac, and Eduardo Roca (Choco) were included among the nominees this time.
Zaida del Rio, Juan Moreira, Rocio Garcia, Roberto Salas, Alberto Lescay, Rafael Zarza, Jose Antonio Choy, Lesbia VentDumois and Ernesto Rancaño, according to the newspaper Granma, are also on the list.
This time, the jury was chaired by last year's National Award winner, Lazaro Saavedra.
Pedro de Oraá (1931) studied at the San Alejandro Academy in 1952, and joined "Los Once" in 1956, one of the eminent Cuban vanguard groups.
Collections from the National Fine Arts Museum in Havana, the Museum of Modern Arts in New York City, the Centre Pompidou in France, and the Ludwig Museum in Germany, host his abstractionist works.
Some work by Pedro de Oraá was included in the exhibition 'Concrete Cuba' which showed in London at David Zwirner Gallery this September. Pedro is one of the only surviving member of the Cuban group of abstract painters Los Diez Pintores Concretos (Ten Concrete Painters).
For more about the Ten Concrete painters and that exhibition see report here
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