Cienfuegos studied architecture at the the Escuela de Arquitectura y Arte in Santiago. He later left for Mexico and studied grahic design, painting and sculpture at the Escuela La Esmeralda in Mexico City. He returns to Chile in 1975 and is currently a professor of art at the Universidad Catolica in Chile. Cienfuegos’ art displays conversance with the gamut of Western painting, with obvious quotes from the old and new masters: Jan Van Eyck, Rubens, Velasquez, Goya, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux and Balthus, among others. The individuals in Cienfuegos’ quiet dramas are usually expressionless and introspective, occupying a strange world of their own. His recent solo exhibits include: 1998, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; 1998 Art Miami, Galeria Tomas Andreu; 1999, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, USA.

Sources:
Edward J. Sullivan, ed. Latin American Art in the Twentieth Century. London: Phaidon Press, 1996.