[Press Release]

 

DRAWINGS OF CUBA, OUTSIDER ART FROM HAVANA

 

Few other countries mirror conflicts over freedom and equality, over societal ideals and reality as allegorical and sensual as does Cuba. Its history of Spanish colonial rule, British occupation and the revolution in postwar times still takes effect in the present. But of contemporary art in Cuba we know comparatively little. From February 2018 Kunsthaus Kannen will be showing five Cuban artists who approach the reality of life in Cuba with their imagination: Cities, landscapes, humans, war.

 

Damian Valdes Dilla (*1970) drafts bird’s eye view of fictional cities, which can be static as if they were pictures in a catalogue, or a theatre of war and bombing in uproar.

 

Frederico Garcia Cortzias (*1971) draws networks of mighty roots, which like lindworms and snakes seem to be conquering the page from all sides. This creates a suction, which pulls in the viewer deeper into the picture.

 

Carlos Javier García Huergo (*1954) points out correspondences between the Cuban flag, mathematical sings and the faces of people in his surroundings.

 

Ruben Gerardo Guerrero Garrido (*1954) transcribes passages of biblical texts and overlays them with colorful religious symbols and signs, so that they contradict the linearity of the writing.

 

Josvedy Jove Junco (*1977) draws fantastic figures with female attributes, glaring glasses or feathered headdresses. They are surrounded by commentaries in artificial calligraphy, which tell Jove’s stories.

 

The pictures and objects come from Art Brut Project Cuba, which was created in May 2013 by artist Samuel Riera and is now Cuba’s largest collection of Art Brut and Outsider Art. The artworks are made by Cuban autodidacts, many of whom come from extremely difficult backgrounds. The drawings from Havana are being presented for the first time in Germany.

 

In collaboration with RIERA STUDIO, Havana and Galerie Hamer, Amsterdam