Tonel is an artist, art critic, and curator born in Havana, Cuba. He is currently based in Vancouver, Canada where he has been an adjunct professor of studio art at the Art History, Visual Arts and Theory Department of the University of British Columbia. His art works have been featured in exhibitions in Cuba since the early seventies and worldwide since the late 1970's. Tonel is the author of numerous articles and essays on contemporary Cuban art published in art journals, exhibition catalogues and books. He is the recipient of a John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for painting and installation art (1995) and a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities (1997-98). In 2003 he received the Cuban Artists Fund Award (Cuban Artists Fund, New York, USA).