Bio

Mario Torroella y Martin-Rivero was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1935. He began painting informally as a child at the age of five, under his artist mother’s broad guidance and continued to evolve in a self-taught method throughout his career. His art is influenced by feeling, expression and his Cuban heritage.

At an early age, he was sent to study in the United States. He graduated from Dartmouth College and proceeded to study architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design while continuing to create art in the United States and Cuba. Before graduating from Harvard, Mario took a leave of absence in 1959 to return to Cuba and work for the Cuban Revolution. In 1962, Mario graduated from Harvard and began practicing architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts while at the same time exhibiting in different venues and countries. Mario’s first-one-person exhibit was at the art gallery of the University of Puerto Rico in 1962. In 1969, Mario was cofounder of HMFH Architects, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts where he was partner in charge of design.

Mario has had group and one-person exhibits in the United States, Puerto Rico, France, Switzerland and Spain. Works of his are found in private collections in the United States, Puerto Rico, Peru,  Chile, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Taiwan and Japan, and in the permanent collection of the University of Puerto Rico, and El Museo de Arte Contemporaneo De Velez-Malaga, Spain.

He currently lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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