Orlando Hernández Pascual is a writer, a poet, and an independent art critic and a curator of contemporary art. He is also a researcher in popular cultures and Afro-Cuban ritual arts. He received a degree in Art History at the University of Havana, Cuba, in 1978, and worked as curator and researcher in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de La Habana from 1978 to 1989. His essays on art and culture have been published extensively in catalogues, magazines and books both in Cuba and abroad from the 1980’s up to the present day. He is curator of Without Masks: Contemporary Afro-Cuban Art, which was exhibited at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa, May-August 2010. In May 2011 he co-curated the exhibition of installations José Bedia, Nomadismos, in the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, CAAM, in the Canary Islands, Spain, and is the author of the accompanying publication of the same name. As a poet, he has published a book of poems entitled Muá (Editorial Colmillo Blanco, Lima, Perú, 1988), as well as “artist books” and limited editions with important Cuban artists like José Bedia, Julio Girona, Gustavo Acosta, Carlos Garaicoa, Lázaro Saavedra and Ibrahim Miranda. He is a member of the International Association of Art Critic (AICA Southern Caribbean) and UNEAC. He lives and works in Havana, Cuba.