THE ART OF CUBA IS WOWING US NOW

Cuban art is still very little known in the United States. But that is beginning to change as our countries' relations are warming. Today, we are sharing images and ideas from some of the amazing Cuban artists featured this year at Havana’s 12th Biennial.

RAFAEL SAN JUAN

Cuban sculptor Rafael San Juan created a monumental sculpture, crowning one corner of the Biennial, on Havana’s beachfront, opposite to Hotel Deauville. The piece is a gift to the former San Cristobal de La Habana village to celebrate its 500th birthday.

The piece is made of recycled steel, steel strips. It is part of a group of sculptures devoted to the woman, the rest of which are installed at the Central Park of Guadalajara, Mexico, where the artist is currently residing.

HAVANA BIENNIAL

The Biennial is overflowing with talent. “Art spills out of galleries, schools, historical sites, and public spaces with installations and performances taking place on street corners and along the beautiful seafront promenade,” Cuban Art expert Sandra Levinson touts.

Levinson is founder and director of the Center for Cuban Studies, founded in 1972, and Cuban Art Space, founded in 1999, located both in Havana and New York. She is our beloved guide as we explore the works of 180 artists from 45 countries around the world, each interpreting this biennial theme, “What Lies between the Idea and Experience.”

The Center’s mission is to educate the U.S. public about Cuban art and culture, promote the work of Cuban artists and work toward the resumption of full educational and cultural exchanges between our two countries.

The Center maintains a collection of over 10,000 art works – paintings, drawings, sculpture, posters and prints, photographs, handmade books, and crafts, from artists such as Mendive, Mabel Poblet, Aimee Garcia, William Perez, Camilo Villalvilla, Alberto Lescay, Rocio Garcia, Kcho, Rocio Garcia, Elsa Mora, Cirenaica Moreira, Marlys Fuego, Osvaldo Castilla, and many others. There is no better place to learn and to find the magnificent art of Cuba.

MABEL POBLET

Mabel Poblet is one of the top artists featured at the Center for Cuban Studies and Cuban Art Space.

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, in 1986, Mabel Poblet Pujol is one of the most exciting young artists to emerge from Havana. Her work ranges from photography, video and installations to a reinterpretation of pop and kinetic art. Much of her works are self-referential.

She often features the color red in her works. She believes it represents the polarities of life and death, important themes.

“I use pictures and real objects that have been involved, somehow, in my life. Memories are one of the resources used by the man in the formation of their identity, so, this series is like a return to those places of childhood,” says Poblet.

Poblet is interested in the ability of the mind to violate the laws of physics, and the multidimensional possibility of mental time. ”The act of running time becomes one of the protagonists of the work, gathering memories and forgetfulness in the same feeling,” the artist explains.

We particularly loved the experience of walking through Poblet’s mirrored curtain installation, entitled Patria. It was positively transformative.

EMILIO PEREZ

Cuban-American artist Emilio Perez created a 65-foot long mural as an homage to José Martí, the Grandfather of Cuban independence, poet, soldier, and philosopher .

The piece, entitled Un Verso Sencillo (A Simple Verse), is a site-specific installation along the Malecón—a five-mile long sea wall on the North shore of Havana. It is part of the group exhibition Detrás Del Muro II (Behind the Wall).

Un Verso Sencillo is presented courtesy of Galerie Lelong, which represents Perez in New York and organized his last solo show, Footprints On the Ceiling in 2014. It is presented as a gift to the Cuban people.

RACHEL VALDES CAMEJO

The Malecón (officially Avenida de Maceo) is an esplanade that stretches for 8 km (5 miles) along the coast in Havana, Cuba, from the mouth of Havana Harbor in Old Havana to Vedado neighborhood. More than 50 Biennial works are installed along the strip.

Artist Rachel Valdes Camejo created an installation piece there entitled "Blue Cube," which invites the viewer to enter a structure in order to perceive reality from another perspective.

“I make my work a research process linked to personal experiences,” explains Camejo. “I start from reality to create an element with a total abstract result, objects and images with ambiguous and doubtful visuality.”

ENRIQUE ROTTENBERG

Enrique Rottenberg, an Argentina-born photographer now residing in Cuba, is considered controversial, satirical, manic-melancholic, lewd, empathic, and alarming. His photography tries to represent both timelessness and motion. Life is suspended. Stories are frozen. Fantasies play on.

Like a modern Muybridge, Rottenberg captures the beauty of sequence, studying the graceful arc and forms of movement and transition.

We were especially taken with Rottenberg’s Centipede, a panoramic photograph, featuring 50 women, stretching out around the curved walls of the Fábrica de Arte Cubano during the Biennial.

RENÉ PEÑA

Cuban photographer René de Jesus Peña Gonzalez, best known as René Peña, took his first pictures with his family camera at the age of eight years and has never had any formal training.

His works are mainly variations of self-portraits, as they explore his own desire to escape his confines and express his individuality. Sometimes compared to photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, Peña’s works have a somewhat erotic, sculptural feel.

While much of his work is in black-and-white photography, Peña has more recently begun to experiment with color, to a powerful effect.

His exhibition at the Havana Biennial was one of our all-time favorites.

Read more about Beautiful Cuba, as it relates to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact including 10 Beautiful Books on Cuba Happening Now, Wild & Beautiful in Cuba Now and The Most Beautiful Cuban Rums in the World Right Now.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Photo: by Shira White. Primavera by Rafael San Juan.
2. Photo: by Shira White. Primavera by Rafael San Juan.
3. Photo: by Shira White. Havana Biennial installation at La Cabaña.
4. Image: by Manuel Mendive. Se Alimenta mi Espiritu.
5. Photo: by Shira White. Mendive performance art at Havana Biennial.
6. Image: Courtesy of William Perez. Orientación (Direction).
7. Image: by Mabel Poblet. Untitled, from the series Desapariencia.
8. Image: Courtesy of Center for Cuban Studies and Cuban Art Space. NARCISO by Mabel Poblet.
9. Photo: by Shira White. Patria by Mabel Poblet.
10. Photo: by Shira White. Patria. by Mabel Poblet.
11. Photo: Courtesy of Cuban Art News. Mural by Emilio Perez. Un Verso Sencillo (A Simple Verse). Havana, Cuba.
12. Image: courtesy of  Rachel Valdes Camejo. Blue Cube – Immersion. Havana, Cuba.
13. Photo: by Shira White. Centipede, Enrique Rottenberg, installed at Fabrica de Arte Cubano at Havana Biennial.
14. Photo: by Shira White. Centipede, Enrique Rottenberg installed at Fabrica de Arte Cubano at Havana Biennial.
15. Photo: by René Peña. Untitled.
16. Photo: by René Peña. Tutú.
17. Image: by Mabel Poblet. Untitled, from the series Desapariencia.
18. Image: by Aimee Garcia. Courtesy of the Center for Cuban Studies & Cuban Art Space.
19. Image: Courtesy of BeautifulNow. BN App.
20. Work by Enrique Rottenberg. The Evolution of the Selfportraits Series & Evolution II.