Contemporary Art from Cuba:
Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island

September 27, 1998 through December 13, 1998
Curated by Marilyn A. Zeitlin

ENGLISH - ESPAÑOL

Brito Image

 

Yamilys Brito

In present day Cuba, humor has come to play an essential role in coping with the challenges of everyday life in the face of an uncertain national destiny. In September 1998, the ASU Art Museum opened Contemporary Art from Cuba: Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island, an exhibition of the work of 17 contemporary artists working in Cuba today.

Alvarez - Site (Homage to Wifredo Lam)

Ayon - La Cena (The Dinner)

Carpinteros - Flying Pigeon

Gomez - Desierto (Desert)
Pedro Alvarez Belkis Ayón Los Carpinteros Luis Gómez

These artists are young, ranging in age from 24 to 39; many of them are Afro-Cuban. While they are the generation that voices skepticism about the pieties of the socialist Revolution, they remain loyal Cubans. Included in the exhibition are Pedro Alvarez, Belkis Ayón, Abel Barroso, Jacqueline Brito, Yamilys Brito, Carlos Estévez, René Francisco, Carlos Garaicoa, Luis Gómez, Kcho, Los Carpinteros, Sandra Ramos, Fernando Rodríguez, Esterio Segura, José A. Toirac, Tonel (Antonio Eligio Fernández), and Osvaldo Yero. 

Estevez - Designs of the Spirit

Segura - Karl Marx Foundation

Tonel - El vómito es la cultura (Vomit is Culture)

Yero - Sueño de lo americano (Dreaming of Things American)
Carlos Estévez Esterio Segura Tonel Osvaldo Yero

They comment on shortages, persistent racism, the manipulation of history, and the tragedy of the balseros who left on makeshift rafts, the contradictions between revolutionary rhetoric and present day Cuban reality.

Ramos - (Migrations II) (Dreaming of Coca-Cola)

Barroso - Tiempo de Inversion (Investment Time)

Francisco - Sin titulo

Rodriquez - Secreto (Secret)
Sandra Ramos Abel Barroso René Francisco Fernando Rodríguez

 

 
Brito - Cuatro caminos Toirac - (Silence, silence...let's listen [139 Martyrs of the Minstry of the Interior] Rodriquez - Pa' Cuba (For Cuba) Garaicoa - Sloppy Joe's Bar
Jacqueline Brito José A.Toirac Fernando Rodríguez Carlos Garaicoa

Kcho - Para olvidar (In Order to Forget)
Kcho

The ASU Art Museum specializes in contemporary art, and has a reputation for exhibiting work that is experimental in content, form or presentation. Recent projects have included Bill Viola: Buried Secrets, the US representative to the 1995 Venice Biennale; Art on the Edge of Fashion, presenting artists who use clothing forms and materials to convey meaning; Physical Fiction: Electronic Installations by Sara Roberts and Dis/Functional.

For more information on the exhibition, catalogue and videotape
Contemporary Art from Cuba:
Irony and Survival on the Utopian Island
contact: John Spiak
ph: 480.965.2787
fax: 480.965.5254
or spiak@asu.edu

This website document, including images and text, may not be reproduced, either mechanically or electronically, without permission in writing from the ASU Art Museum. ©1999, the artists, the writers, and the Regents of the State of Arizona.

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