Cuba, Untitled

A cross section of contemporary Cuban artists

Exhibition: April 21, 2004 – May 12, 2004
Reception: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 6:00-8:30pm

 

Cuba, Untitled is a group show, curated by Pamela Ruiz, which looks at a cross section of contemporary artists working in Cuba today. The artists range in age as well as in the variety of their media.

Sandra Ceballos the eldest is considered within the artistic community, one of Cuba 's most important contemporary artists. Ceballos has done performance, painting and in this exhibition she will be showing photography.

Ernesto Leal, a decade younger from a guerilla performance group, probably one of the most diverse artist. The paintings he brings are based on the frustration that Cubans feel because they cannot have a global vision (satellite view) of the world but a fragmented and incomplete one. Leal uses a technique of stamping paper and collage, unique to him.

Damian Aquiles is from the province of Havana . Originally a painter of landscapes, influenced by Cuban artists Gustavo Acosta and Anselm Kiefer, he has since developed a unique approach to painting. He paints with “oxidation”.

Nelson & Ludmila, as they are known, are married and their work is informed by photography. Both photography and video are two of the most difficult media to express in Cuba . Scarcity of materials is daunting but they substitute innovation and creativity comes into play.

Angel Delgado has a unique language, he recycles handkerchiefs of elderly men who are coaxed into their cherished “panuelos” for new ones. Simple drawings are then added bridging two histories into one. Here he will show work in soap, another one of his icons.

The other artists are, Jario Alfonso, Vladimir Llaguno, Yalili Mora and Daniel Rivero.

*The featured photo detail of “Infinite time, infinite color, infinite memory, infinite destiny” by Damian Aquiles, is comprised of seven hundred individual men, each man is chiseled from fenders of old cars, water tanks and metal objects, long discarded. The men are in various stages of walking and when seen together they appear to give themselves up to a march.