Roberto Acosta Wong was born in 1961 in Havana, of Cuban and Chinese families. Acosta Wong studied art at the prestigious San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts, where he also later taught.

A very active and involved artist in the contemporary Cuban art scene, even as a student, and later as a professor, he participated in many art salons in Havana, illustrated articles for several newspapers, wrote pieces about contemporary art and helped organize a side exhibition to the Second Havana Bienal.

In 1989 and 1991, his work was included in the Second and Third Biennial of Applied Art Domingo Ravenet in Havana and was later selected to represent Cuba in the Faenza Ceramic Triennial in Italy.

Since migrating to the United States in 1992, Acosta Wong has exhibited widely all over the United States, in more than 30 solo and group shows across the country.

Like many Cuban exiles, Acosta Wong has been heavily influenced by his departure from Cuba. He has written:

“When I think of all my former students, of my friends, of the Morro and La Punta Castles in Havana… (sigh) And yet I’ve never questioned if my escape was worth the effort. I know that I’ve lived in Bogotá, Colombia and Wheaton, Maryland. And I’ve realized my student dreams of visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York; of seeing in situ, a Henry Moore sculpture, and I’ve even had an exhibition in New York.

I’ve traveled to many cities in North, Central and South America, and Europe. Now I live in the sun capital – Miami, where on a daily basis I try to free everything that I feel. Yet, I am never satisfied; I consider myself lazy because I’ve haven’t done half of what I’ve planned, and sometimes I feel incapable of beginning certain projects – and yet I still enjoy creating a drawing on a plain piece of paper as much as building an eight foot terracotta.”

This exhibition showcased Wong's work within a Cuban context for the first time in the Greater Washington, DC area. His original artwork is available through the Fraser Gallery of Washington, DC and Bethesda, Maryland.