César Santaló was born in Baltimore, Maryland. At the age of eight he moved to Miami, FL. From a very young age, César has shown to be passionate about art and its creation. Influenced by his godfather architect Enrique Luis Varela, lead architect of the “Jose Marti Monument” in Cuba. At the age of sixteen, he had won many prestigious national art awards and scholarships; including regional and national winner of the Scholastic Art Awards and the Dante Fascell Congressional Art Award. He later received the Art Innovations National Winner at the college level.

As a student, César learned from great masters such as Felix Ramos, Ricardo Irisari, Felix Decosio and Manolo Canovacas. César would later attend Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, where he would receive his Bachelors Degree in Drawing and Painting. During his time in New York he taught at Pratt Institute’s Saturday Art School.

After graduation, the artist was offered a position with a prestigious Graphic Design firm as a Graphic Artist/Illustrator. He was able to work for such clients as Burger King, American Express and Esso. He later worked for Expert Software where he was Senior Artist and Designer working on such products as Bicycle Brand Software, McDonaldland and Sega. César was responsible for revamping of the look for Bicycle products, which led the sales per month to increase an average of 300%.

César then took his talents to the creators of Canvas Software; competitors of Photoshop and Illustrator where he was also Senior Artist. He is well versed in traditional illustration techniques, and can also render highly detailed technical illustrations. He was able to make presentations of his signature images at COMDEX, Las Vegas and also in Tokyo, Japan as part of the Canvas Press Tour. He was also instrumental in designing the features and functions of the program. He continues to assist them in many of their illustration needs.

Following his experience with Canvas, César began working for Univision Network where was Art Director for Entertainment than later Art Director for Marketing/Programming & Digital. As Art Director he is responsible for the creating on air graphics package looks for such shows and series such as Despierta America, Bella y La Bestias, Amar A Muerte, Nuestra Belleza Latina, La Piloto, and Gordo Y La Flaca just to name a few. He is also an adjunct professor of Art at the University of Miami, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and Miami-Dade College MAGIC.

He has won Best of Show at the Lowe Art Museum, 2003 (Juror: Bernice Steinbaum). In 2004, he received the Adobe Innovations Award from the University of Miami and won best of show “Imagination”, Juried Exhibition of Still, Kinetic and Interactive Fine Art and the Mann Grant for Outstanding Teaching Assistant. In 2005, one of his collages was purchased by the State Department of Florida, by Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. That same year he had his first one man show which was featured on the internationally televised show, Despierta América, and on local television, Nuestro Orgullo. In January 2006, he was featured as the front page story for the Miami Herald’s Tropical Life magazine. He was also commissioned to illustrate the poster for CubaNostalgia in 2006, 2009 and in 2012, 2015, 2018.

In the near future, César plans to continue working on outdoor and indoor collages that contain photographs, found objects and mosaic tiles. He just completed a group exhibition entitled, “Reclaimed Miami” curated by Bernice Steinbaum at the prestigious Zadok Gallery. This year he also completed his fourth participation as illustrator/animator for the Latin Grammy’s. Cesar has illustrated for performances that include Cirque du Soleil, Calle 13, Juan Luis Guerra and Carlos Vives. In the coming year, he is traveling to Europe to hand deliver a collage of Saint Marcellin Champagnat to the Vatican and to Champagnat’s birth place in France. He also completed Little Company of Mary Hospital in Chicago. He is currently a Doctoral Student at St. Thomas University where he is working on his doctoral dissertation on Design Leadership in organizations. He, his wife, and their three beautiful children, reside in South Miami. www.cesarsantalo.com