Yamilet Sempe

Yamilet Sempé was born October 29, 1970 in the city of Matanzas, Cuba, an area known as a significant cultural hub in Cuba with a thriving artistic, literary, and creative community.^[1][2]

Sempé’s family was active in this scene during her upbringing and frequently hosted several prominent figures including guitarist Ildefonso Acosta and painter Modesto García (1930-2016) of the leading Academia Nacional de San Alejandro.^[1][3] García then became an early artistic mentor and supporter of Sempé's artistic expression, notably encouraging the development of her Horses, her first and longest-running painted series.^[1][2]

Sempé left Cuba for France in 1988, after which she became a naturalized French citizen.^[1] Once in France, Sempé had become connected to the late 20th and early 21st century French cultural scene such as painter Pierre Amador, theater director Diane Polya, and patron Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz, as well as many professionals in the field of art and monument restoration.^[1][4]

Among her notable artistic projects during her French period was the restoration of the historic Chateau du Beyrat.^[5] Located in the commune of Bellenaves, various portions of the Chateau du Beyrat date to between the 12th century (notably including its surviving medieval towers) to the 18th century.^[1] The project was complex and extensive, ultimately involving a restoration team and taking place in several stages across 12 years that involved the restoration of the chateau’s facade, interior frescos, coats of arms, as well as adding new elements such as mosaics in the Chateau's chapel, as well as outdoor floor tiling, and a sculpture garden featuring an obelisk.^[6][5]

While residing in France, Sempé had also run a specialty antique books company, Entre les pages, for six years from 2006 until 2012.^[2] The firm sold original copies of rare and historical literary works, such as the grimoire Le Grand Grimoire avec la grande Clavicule de Salomón (The Grand Grimoire with the Great Clavicle of Solomon) to collectors based in France, Italy, Spain, and the United States.^[2] Her interest and involvement in literature would also influence Sempé's visual art and appear in the themes of several paintings.^[1]

In 2012 Sempé relocated from France to Miami, Florida where she subsequently became active in Miami’s growing international art community. Her Miami period was also notable for marking her naturalization as an American citizen, as well as her career transition from painting privately to launching the exhibiting phase of her art career.^[7] A key aspect of this development was her active involvement in the Cuban art community in exile that was based in Miami, through which Sempé became connected to several of its notable figures, including Josignacio, Adriano Nicot, and AGalban.^[7] She had also become connected to the art and literary scene centered around the cultural hub of Unzueta Gallery, which was itself connected to Ramón Unzueta’s network of involvement in Spain and France. Another key figure of Sempé's artistic development upon arrival to Miami was Cuban painter Fernando García, whose mentorship of Sempé had influenced her Abstraction series.^[7]

As her exhibiting profile in the United States grew and developed through the 2010s, Sempé would be invited to participate in an increasing number of international exhibitions and auctions, as well as art events in notable venues. This would include participation in major art fairs and entering into institutional collections in the 2020s.

In 2021 Sempé relocated from Florida to Omaha, Nebraska and would continue to participate in exhibitions and auctions throughout the United States and in Europe.^[7][8]

Since becoming an established and internationally active artist, Yamilet Sempé has become best known for her works in total abstraction as well as geometric abstraction, which form her two primary series of work: her Abstraction series and her Geometric series, respectively.^[9] A third notable series is her long-running Horses/Shaman series, which predates both her Abstraction and Geometric series.^[1] She produces work on canvas, paper, and ceramic mediums.^[9][10] With the exception of her early mentorship by Modesto García in Cuba and later mentorship with Fernando García upon arrival in Miami, Sempé is considered largely self-taught as an artist.^[1] While she is known to utilize a primarily intuitive painting process, her work is reported to also draw influence from the art of several major Cuban, American, and European artists on each of her series.^[9] For her Geometric series, these include the Bauhaus movement, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, and the Cuban painters José Mijares, Carmen Herrera, Zilia Sanchez, and Loló Soldevilla.^[11][1][9] Likewise, her Abstraction series has drawn influence from Mexican painter Manuel Felguérez as well as Cuban painters Agustín Fernández and her mentor Fernando García.^[1][2]

Recurring key features recognized in her works include her use of the color orange, the natural world, as well as the exploration of spiritual themes, such as mysticism and the esoteric, and the use of symbols connected to them, such as geometric mandalas.^[11][5][9] She also employs additional symbols of personal meaning.^[9] Her symbolic motifs include the Rose of Jericho^{[disambiguation needed]}, which she represents as a sphere and has used as a symbol of the immortality of the soul, itself a frequent theme in her work, as well as for the interconnection between art, nature and life.^[11][2]