Juan
Carlos Alom
Belkis Ayon
Carlos Estevez
| Jose
Manuel Fors
Ibrahim Miranda
Fernando Rodriquez
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What
about the art of Cuba? How does life on an island under a socialist
regime affect artistic expression? Has the rigid U.S. embargo of more
than 40 years, intensified Cuba’s isolation from the rest of the
artistic world? The circumstances that provoke these questions might
well have had a suffocating affect on the artistic production of Cuba
today, but not so. It seems that these conditions have instead served
as impetus for extraordinary exploration.
The
artists in this exhibition, with one exception (Fors, b. 1956) were
born after Castro’s Revolution of 1959. As members of a
new artistic generation, they share no pre-Revolutionary memories. They
draw their inspiration from complex and sophisticated postmodern influences.
All received training in the state supported art academies of Cuba and
all have exhibited internationally. Although grounded in the classical
study of art, these young artists are the progeny of the computer age
and MTV. They have been saturated with North American culture and with
the mass media images of Hollywood. Despite the governmental rigmarole
involved, professional artists are given special status in Cuba and
are awarded the luxury of traveling, exhibiting, teaching or studying
in major centers of art throughout the world. This exposure has broadened
and informed their individual artistic visions.
Diverse
in media, approach and subject matter, each of the artists in this exhibition
eloquently demonstrates the fact that Cuba is neither isolationist nor
suffocating to the creative spirit of its people. El Camino College
is grateful to Couturier Gallery and Iturralde Gallery
for making this exhibition possible.
-SUSANNA
MEIERS
Curator El Camino College Art Gallery
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| JUAN
CARLOS ALOM
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Intimate
stages for symbolic action, Juan Carlos Alom’s black
and white photographs (gelatin silver prints) function as windows
into a spiritual and abstract dimension. Posing objects/subjects
in opposition — man/fish; flesh/metal; a body dissolving
in clay, Alom fashions a theatre of transcendence where metamorphic
transition is central. (Not all of these are present in this exhibit)
Dios Esta
en Las Manos del Hombre
God is in the Hands of Man
gelatin silver print
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Untitled
gelatin silver print |
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BELKIS
AYON
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| Belkis
Ayon explores an enigmatic spiritual world in her dense colographic
works. Much of her imagery is taken from the Abakua, an all
male Afro-Cuban secret society established in the 1830's and still
active in Cuba today. Using the Abakuan myths as a basis,
Ayon constructed a symbolic visual language that became progressively
darker over time, as if foreshadowing her own death at the age of
32 in 1999. |
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Mi Vernicle, O Si Note Olivodo
My Imprint Or So I Don't Forget
colograph
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La
Cena
The Dinner
colograph
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CARLOS
ESTEVEZ
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Vive Como
Quieras
Live As You Like
watercolor on paper
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With
acrobatic finesse Carlos Estevez traverses the realms of
both the physical and metaphysica, leaving traces of his journey
in delicate watercolor and pencil drawings. In his witty allegories,
the human figure mingles with machine, animal and the cosmos.
In Estevez’s images one senses the presence of a medieval
alchemist or the hand of an ancient astronomer, mapping the creatures
of the night sky.
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El Inexplicable
Mundo del Deseo
The Inexplicable World of Desire
watercolor on canson paper |
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Mutaciones
de la Conciencia
Mutations of the Conscience
watercolor pastel graphite |
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JOSE
MANUEL FORS
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| Photocopies
from the archives of his botanist grandfather, current photos and
family memorabilia, postcards, letters and documents are the raw
material of the constructions by Jose Manuel Fors. In a rich
layering of materials and memory, Fors articulates his view of nature’s
macro system and of the similarly complex structure of the human
community. |
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Los Retratos
II (Portraits)
The Inexplicable World of Dosirs
toned gelatin silver print,mixed media
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Los
Retratos II (Detail)
The Inexplicable World of Dosirs
toned gelatin silver print,mixed media
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| IBRAHIM
MIRANDA
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The
fact that Cuba is an island triggers a myriad of metaphors: autonomy,
emigration, flight and isolation. Miranda’s maps of Cuba
explore all of these associations. By using the map as a constant
while varying the medium and style, from collage and woodblock
prints to cubrecamas (quilt tops), Ibrahim Miranda
ponders questions of cultural and socio-psychological nature.
Botello
y Perro
Bottle and Dog
fabric and thread(quilt top)
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Lagrimas
Negras
Black Tears
fabric and thread(quilt top) |
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| FERNANDO
RODRIGUEZ
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| By
creating a fictional character. Francisco de Ia Cal, a humble
and blind Cuban worker, Fernando Rodriguez plumbs the politics
of socialization. Rodriguez uses a style, which is intentionally
folkloric, carving rustic renditions of de Ia Cal, linked arm in
arm with mirror images of himself. In so doing, Rodriguez exposes
a dilemma which is not so much political as human — the incredible
difficulty of maintaining individuality in a collective society. |
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Rodamiento
Roller Bearings(Detail)
aluminum and car grease
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Sombra
Umbrella
umbrella stand and polychromed wood
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