Today we’d like to introduce you to Leticia Sánchez Toledo.
Hi Leticia, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Cabaiguán, a small town in central Cuba where art was part of everyday life. My mother was a painter, and watching her work influenced me deeply from an early age. We lived right next to the town cinema, a place that shaped how I see the world. I spent hours watching films, and over time I began paying more attention to light, color, and atmosphere than to the stories themselves.
Although I studied Graphic Design at the Instituto Superior de Diseño (ISDI) in Havana, painting always held a central place in my life. After graduating, I decided to dedicate myself fully to my artistic practice and started showing my work for the first time.
In 2019, I moved to Miami, a new beginning both personally and professionally. Building an artistic career in a new country required persistence and faith in my own work. Over time, I have developed a practice centered on private moments, memories, and the quiet details of daily life. That commitment has been recognized by the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Later this year, I was selected to participate in Interlude, an artist residency in the United States that will give me one dedicated month with time and resources to focus entirely on my work, a step that matters for my career.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path has not been entirely straightforward. One of the greatest challenges has been emigrating more than once. Before settling in Miami in 2019, I lived in Santo Domingo, Spain, and Costa Rica. Each move meant rebuilding from scratch. New networks, new opportunities, learning to navigate a different cultural context. Starting over repeatedly required a particular kind of adaptability. Language has also been a challenge, especially navigating the art world in English. Writing proposals, giving talks, and building relationships demands a level of fluency that goes beyond communication. It requires finding your voice in another tongue, which takes time and courage. Like many artists, I have had to live with the uncertainty that comes with a creative profession. Without a clear road map or guarantee of success, periods of doubt and rejection are inevitable, and results often take time. On top of that, I have balanced my life as an artist, a mother, and an immigrant. Looking back, those challenges reinforced my commitment to my own artistic voice, independent of trends or external expectations.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a visual artist working primarily in oil paint. My work explores the emotional dimension of everyday life through intimate scenes, domestic interiors, and seemingly ordinary moments. I am drawn to spaces of transition, instants of pause, and the quiet relationships we establish with our surroundings. I often work from photographs I take myself, which function as a personal visual archive. I use those images as a starting point to build atmospheres where light, color, and composition carry as much weight as the figures themselves, rather than documenting reality literally. Cinema also has a deep influence on my work — many of my paintings function like suspended film stills, open to multiple interpretations. What sets me apart is my interest in the subtle. I am not drawn to grand events or obvious narratives. I am attracted to the moments that tend to go unnoticed. I try to find beauty and meaning in those common experiences we share as human beings. What I am most proud of is having built my own voice and maintained my commitment to painting over the years — even through periods of uncertainty and change. I am also grateful for the recognition my work has received through exhibitions, publications, and grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Still, each time I enter the studio to start a new painting, I feel curious and excited.
The work I will be showing today belongs to my most recent series, Docile Metals and Memory. These are paintings on antique metal trays sourced from flea markets and secondhand venues. The objects once occupied the center of domestic life and have since slipped into a quiet form of abandonment. Painting on them felt like an act of recovery. The series is also deeply personal. It began as a tribute to a close friend I lost, and carries within it everything I believe about memory, the intimate moments of domestic life, and the objects that outlive the people who loved them. It is currently on view at The Annex Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Something that often surprises people is that, although I am a visual artist, I did not study Fine Arts. I trained as a graphic designer, and for years I learned to think about images through composition, structure, and visual language. My development as a painter was largely self-directed. I learned at home, driven by a deep love for painting and a natural curiosity about it, spending countless hours observing other artists’ work and studying art books.
However, an equally important part of my visual education took place in the movie theater of my hometown in Cuba, where I spent countless hours watching films. Over time, I found myself paying more attention to light, framing, color, and atmosphere than to the stories themselves. Before I ever studied color theory or art history, I learned how to see by watching a cinema screen.
I believe my painting emerges from the convergence of these different forms of learning: the intuitive and emotional way of seeing that cinema gave me, the sensitivity to composition and image-making that came from design, and the self-taught education I developed through observation, reading, and the continuous study of painting.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.leticiasanchez.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leticiasanchez.artist/
