Cuban artist Alonso Mateo was born in 1964 in Havana, where he studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. Mateo emigrated to Mexico and lived there until 1990. After a brief stay in Miami, Mateo moved to Las Vegas where he now lives and works. Mateo's works are conceived as representations of the pleasures and diversions of mass culture, capturing the essence of beauty, the ephemeral, and the heroic. His pieces are a synthesis of modernity and classicism: design, advertising, and poster art references seem to float on baroque backgrounds that recreate palatial tapestries. Alonso Mateo has exhibited in the United States and abroad, and his works are part of important art colections in England, France, Spain, Mexico, and the United States.