Erick Ginard (born September 8, 1979) is a contemporary visual artist and the most internationally awarded Cuban poster artist since the Cuban poster boom of the 1970s.
Early life
The first son of a marriage of doctors, Erick Ginard was born in the municipality of Marianao in Havana, Cuba. His first years were spent in Havana, but some time later the family settled in the eastern city of Las Tunas where Ginard's parents were appointed by the Cuban government to carry out a social mission. Ginard grew up between the two Cuban cities. Although from a young age he seemed to have an aptitude for drawing, Erick preferred sports and outdoor activities rather than artistic ones.
At the age of 18, back in Havana and after having completed his compulsory military service, he began his studies at the Higher Institute of Industrial Design (ISDi) without having a very precise idea of what design meant. In his own words, during his college years he was the worst student he could be. He was just sure that he didn't want to become a doctor.
Learning as he went along, Ginard designed and illustrated his first books for some Cuban publishing houses. Simultaneously, he began to be interested in the poster art.
Career
After graduating in 2003, Ginard did practically everything in Cuba in the field of graphic design. In the next five years he designed and illustrated more than a hundred books and magazines for various Cuban, Mexican and American publishers. He designed publications such as Caminos magazine, the cultural magazine La Letra del Escriba, the Journal of the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema and the newspaper of the Havana International Book Fair while creating his first posters.
With a strong expressionist aesthetic, Ginard's posters quickly stand out in the Cuban poster landscape with an identity of their own. The unfinished hand drawing, like a sketch, and the risky use of typography marked his early works and are often found throughout his later graphic production always categorized as an endearing rarity.
In 2008, his poster to celebrate the ten years of "A Guitarra Limpia" at the Pablo de la Torriente Brau Cultural Center won the First Prize in the national contest organized for this purpose.
In 2010, Ginard settled in Mexico City where he founded his own design studio together with Cuban artist Katherine R. Paz. Tojosa Design Studio becomes the physical and spiritual space where Ginard continuously develops signature projects. At the same time, he begins to represent Cuba and Mexico in biennials, contests, and poster events around the world, becoming one of the most recognized poster artists worldwide.
Erick Ginard's graphic work has been exhibited in more than 40 countries. Ginard's posters are part of the permanent collections of various museums and iconic cultural institutions such as the Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design in Japan and the Lahti Poster Museum in Finland.
In 2020, Ginard was the only representative from the Americas in the professional design jury of the Golden Turtle Festival in Moscow.