- A New Traveling Exhibition -
T
Sandra Ramos, La Caja de Pandora, 2017, Etching
The Art of Nine Contemporary Cuban Women
From the
Discoveries in Art
Certilman Family Collection
Curator - Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D
There have been surprisingly few surveys of contemporary Cuban women artists. This exhibition aims to shed light on women’s significant contributions to the cultural fabric of their country and beyond. The 51 works showcased is this new exhibition span the last 30 years and feature a selection of nine contemporary artists: Ariamna Contino, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Rocio Garcia de la Nuez, Alejandra Glez, Elsa Mora, Mabel Poblet Pujol, Sandra Ramos, Adislen Reyes, and Linet Sanchez Gutierrez. While half of the artists continue to reside permanently in Cuba, others, such as Ramos, Mora, and Garcia Marrero, have emigrated to the United States. Some, like Contino and Poblet, have residences in both Cuba and Spain. Despite geographical distances, they remain deeply connected to their heritage and share common values, as reflected in their works, which bear witness to the enduring impact Cuba has had on their multilayered lives.
The artists highlighted in this exhibition represent two distinct generations with somewhat different formative experiences. Ramos, Mora, Garcia Marrero, and Garcia de la Nuez received their training during the challenging era of the 1990s, known as the “Special Period.” This period was marked by profound economic crisis and scarcity following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Cuba’s primary source of economic and political support during the Cold War. In contrast, Poblet, Glez, Sanchez, Reyes, and Contino, born later in the 1980s, began their careers amidst a growing awareness of the world beyond, facilitated by increased tourism and opportunities for artists abroad. Despite these divergent backgrounds, most of the artists in this exhibition received their training at the country’s prestigious art schools: the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and the Academia de Bellas Arts de San Alejandro.
Cuba has a rich history of women artists who have made significant contributions to the country’s vibrant and diverse art scene. These women have explored various artistic mediums, styles, and themes, often breaking boundaries and challenging societal norms. Most of the female artists in the collection reflect upon their intense personal experiences and examine their identity within a strict social and political order. Their explorations are not merely internal but also external, expressing a desire to transcend the physical and psychological constraints imposed upon them by their country’s restrictions and relative isolation as an island nation. Through different strategies and symbolism, they convey their anxieties, dreams, and visions, often quite literally weaving together histories about themselves and their homeland. Their prevalent use of mixed media — especially repurposed materials — reflects the resourcefulness that modern Cuban women have developed to thrive despite limited available materials.
LAYERED LIVES is curated by art historian, Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D. The exhibition and tour are being organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angleles, CA. The exhibition is now available for scheduling beginning in January 2025 through 2027.
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| The Artists |
Ariamna Contino Mendoza (b. 1984)
Daydream, 2023, Handmade paper and gold leaf
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Contino’s elegantly crafted works consist primarily of monochromatic multi-layered cut paper collages. Contino’s deconstructive and reconstructive approach provides her work with meaning. “In my process, I break and then rebuild, that is why the act of tearing, crushing, squeezing has a symbolic and aesthetic connotation.”
Contino focuses primarily on Latin American history, social phenomena, and environmental issues. At first glance, the Camino al Eden collages appear to be delicate renderings of Latin American landscapes. However, they represent the corridors through which drugs travel from South America to the United States. These seemingly idyllic images camouflage the harsh realities and violent environment in these regions. Similarly, the striking and mesmerizing blue-toned Day Dream series is the artist’s critical response to climate change’s damaging affect on the seas, particularly evident in Cuba. The central prominent gold leaf section symbolizes the precious few remains amidst devastating transformations. For Contino, the ocean is a constant reminder of the elements that simultaneously connect and separate us.
- About the Artist - |
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Aimee Garcia Marrero (b.1972)
Represssion 1, 2018, Oil on wood, vinyl, thread
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Garcia, initially drawn to sculpture but hindered by a lack of materials during the Special Period, shifted her focus to painting during her studies at ISA. Her persistent desire to create mixed media art led her to incorporate diverse materials such as wires, newspapers, lace, lead, hair, and blood into her work. These everyday objects serve as poignant reflections of family life, societal stigmas, and the essence of womanhood. The threads intricately superimposed and woven into her portraits symbolize the silent burdens and barriers experienced by women, highlighting the complex interplay between fragility and resilience in the face of censorship and repression. Through the embroidery and weaving in her paintings, Garcia underscores the fundamental role these traditional crafts played in her upbringing and daily life as a Cuban woman.
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"The self-portrait has been a constant in my work. I'm not interested in talking about my own life, rather about the universal feminine experience. The work is an invitation to reflect on life, history, gender contradictions, memories, and the political and social environment by means of an existential discourse with multiple implications.”
- About the Artist - |
Rocio Garcia de la Nuez, (b. 1955)
Beach Bar Solicito, 2022, Acrylic and ink on paper
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Garcia de la Nuez received her training at San Alejandro and has since dedicated over three decades to teaching there. Her vibrant paintings, frequently featuring bold nude figures within diverse settings, draw inspiration from cinematography and possess a narrative quality that invites interpretation. With an ambiguous essence, her artworks often leave much to the imagination. The array of characters depicted in her works mirrors her own quest for significance and understanding. In her diptych, The Night of the Tulips, she imagines the life of a woman observed through an apartment window. Contemplating the woman's identity, Garcia de la Nuez crafts a narrative that unfolds with a hint of mystery, culminating in a sinister conclusion after the woman disappears behind closed curtains.
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- About the Artist -
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Alejandra Glez (b. 1996)
Presence, From the Series: Sea Swell, 2018/2023
Photographic print on mylar in light box
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Through introspection, Glez channels her own experiences of trauma into evocative imagery. Employing a diverse array of mediums including photography, collage, installations, performances, and video art, she challenges the societal norms and conventions that stigmatize femininity within patriarchal contexts. For Glez, female nudes in various contexts represent a pathway to personal liberation and catharsis. Her surreal and dreamlike photographs of a flotilla of nude women drifting and dissolving into the sea, symbolize themes of female passivity and the erasure of individuality within Cuban society. Passionate about ocean conservation, she draws a parallel between the environmental crisis and the challenges women face. She compares Mother Nature to women “crying out for awareness and action.” |
- About the Artist -
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Elsa Mora (b. 1971)
I Owe Myself an Apology, 1998, Mixed media |
Mora’s early mixed media works serve as autobiographical reflections, delving into themes of the female condition, self-exploration, connectivity, and survival. These assemblages intricately weave together personal artifacts, photographs, and painted elements, juxtaposing them to evoke deeper narratives. In more recent years, her focus has shifted towards painting, drawing, and paper creations, through which she explores her own transformative journey by blending natural and human elements to craft hybrid beings. Embracing the expressive qualities of paper, she employs it as a metaphor for renewal and reinvention, intrigued by its parallels to the mysteries of the brain and mental infirmity.
Her latest body of work encompasses ceramic sculpture, featured in the series entitled An Inventory of Tools for Coping. Each sculptural object symbolizes a distinct mental condition, serving as a mechanism for navigating personal crises. While some pieces, |
| like the hammer, are utilitarian in nature, others take on a more abstract and dysfunctional form; nevertheless, both types carry intrinsic value and aesthetic beauty, embodying Mora’s profound exploration of coping mechanisms and resilience. |
- About the Artist - |
Mabel Poblet Pujol (b. 1986)
Ephemeral, 2022, Origami folded photographs printed on backlight paper,
mounted on plexiglass. Four pieces, 120 x 120 cm each. 245 x 245 cm |
The powerful and dynamic mixed media works by Mabel Poblet examine female identity within a strict social order. As the protagonist of many of her pieces, Poblet combines her personal experiences and self-evaluation with broader issues of the meaning of feminine beauty. Her images of women wearing wigs and colorful stockings in enclosed box-like places illustrate the disguises women wear to adhere to conventions, the parameters of which Poblet puts into question. These shimmering bold images of women are superimposed with of hundreds of small translucent plastic flowers created by female inmates of the Holguin prison,
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raising the aesthetic value of such objects of kitsch and validating their meaning. The theme of levitation, embodied by female figures in clouds or floating in water, expresses Poblet’s desire to evade confines and break boundaries.
In addition to such exercises in introspection, Poblet looks outward in her exploration of aspirations and anxieties associated with migration and mobility. Her circular luminous Travel Diaries are composed of cut-up photographs of places she visits, fragmented memories pieced together to produce a revised world view. Her technical process involves cutting photographs into tiny shards and then reconstructing them and creating a completely new vision and dimensionality. As a young artist, who was trained at San Alejandro and ISA and has had extensive exposure to the international art scene, her preoccupation with freedom in all its forms has evolved from a focus on the containment of the body to the dismantling of barriers and formulaic perceptions.
- About the Artist - |
Sandra Ramos (b. 1969)
Cultivating Miracles, 1993, Lithograph |
Throughout her prolific career, Ramos has employed a diverse range of mediums, including painting, printmaking, installation art, and mixed media, to explore the complexities of the human experience within the context of her native Cuba and the broader global landscape. Drawing from her own personal history and the socio-political realities of contemporary Cuba, her work often confronts issues such as censorship, displacement, and the search for individual and collective identity. In her multi-dimensional artworks, Ramos confronts the poignant realities of migration, loss, mourning, and familial separation.
One of Ramos's most iconic series features her alter ego — a schoolgirl character reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland — who serves as a poignant symbol of innocence and vulnerability amidst the |
tumultuous socio-economic climate of Cuba. Through this recurring motif, Ramos offers incisive commentary on the challenges faced by Cuban people and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
- About the Artist - |
Adislen Reyes Pino (b. 1984)
From the Series "Fog"; Path, 2021, Acrylic on canvas |
Reyes examines female sexuality and identity with a unique blend of wit and humor. Known for her exceptional skills as a draughtsman and printmaker, she conveys the complexities of young Cuban society, unraveling its inherent tensions and contradictions. While Reyes infuses each of her works with playful humor, she adeptly challenges viewers to look deeper and contemplate the complicated relationships embedded within her art. As a socially conscious artist, Reyes tackles a diverse array of themes, each laden with profound significance. Her textured works offer a poignant reflection on Cuba’s youngest generation’s relationship with its past and their anxieties regarding an uncertain future. Reyes questions the societal conditioning that shapes attitudes towards women, boldly challenging established constructs of gender. With an acute awareness of the power of visual storytelling, she invites viewers to engage critically with her work, offering a nuanced study of pressing social issues intertwined with the complexities of human experience.
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Her compositions often incorporate discarded paper waste from previous works and highlight the significance of mundane and minute objects. In the Fortuna series she creates jewelry designs and pendants from paper scraps, transforming them to have the appearance of precious and valuable accessories. “In this way they become a kind of trophy or hymn to resilience — the ability to reinvent oneself in the face of adversity. ”In her Grafting series, consisting of tiny paper fragments with botanical drawings, she seeks beauty within imperfection. “I tear, I squeeze, I break to then try to recompose.”
- About the Artist - |
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Linet Sanchez Gutierrez (b.1989)
Untitled (Archways), 2021, Digital photo print on Hahnmuhle Fine Art Baryta Satin 300 gsm paper |
Linet Sanchez Gutierrez investigates the realm of memory through her meticulous construction and photography of miniature models. These sublime and multi-layered architectural interiors are not direct representations of existing locations. Drawing from a rich tapestry of sensory, emotional, and personal experiences, each maquette encapsulates a synthesis of her memories and encounters. Sanchez’s works transcend mere physical replicas, representing the profound ways in which spaces serve as conduits for the evocation and triggering of feelings and recollections. Her theatrical interiors reflect Sanchez’s early training in ballet and invite the viewer to engage as both spectator and performer. These multi-dimensional spaces, absent of color and
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humans, evoke the overwhelming sense of emptiness and loneliness she experienced throughout her personal and professional voyage.
- About the Artist - |
- List of Works with Images -
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| Exhibition Essay |
The Art of Nine Contemporary Cuban Women
Essay by
Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D
Cuban art embodies a vibrant and dynamic expression of its rich cultural heritage and complex history. Rooted in a blend of indigenous, African, Spanish, and other influences, Cuban art has evolved over centuries to form a unique and compelling artistic tradition. From the colonial period to the present day, artists have produced works that reflect the nation’s social, political, and cultural evolution. They have been shaped by the country’s tumultuous history, including colonization, slavery, the struggle for independence, and the revolutionary period led by Fidel Castro. These artists grapple with themes such as identity, nationalism, socialism, isolation, diaspora, familial disintegration, and exile, resulting in a diverse and thought-provoking body of work.
There have been surprisingly few surveys of contemporary Cuban women artists. This exhibition aims to shed light on women’s significant contributions to the cultural fabric of their country and beyond. The works showcased span the last 30 years and feature a selection of nine contemporary artists: Ariamna Contino, Aimee Garcia Marrero, Rocio Garcia de la Nuez, Alejandra Glez, Elsa Mora, Mabel Poblet Pujol, Sandra Ramos, Adislen Reyes, and Linet Sanchez Gutierrez. While half of the artists continue to reside permanently in Cuba, others, such as Ramos, Mora, and Garcia Marrero, have emigrated to the United States. Some, like Contino and Poblet, have residences in both Cuba and Spain. Despite geographical distances, they remain deeply connected to their heritage and share common values, as reflected in their works, which bear witness to the enduring impact Cuba has had on their multilayered lives.
The artists highlighted in this exhibition represent two distinct generations with somewhat different formative experiences. Ramos, Mora, Garcia Marrero, and Garcia de la Nuez received their training during the challenging era of the 1990s, known as the “Special Period.” This period was marked by profound economic crisis and scarcity following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had been Cuba’s primary source of economic and political support during the Cold War. In contrast, Poblet, Glez, Sanchez, Reyes, and Contino, born later in the 1980s, began their careers amidst a growing awareness of the world beyond, facilitated by increased tourism and opportunities for artists abroad. Despite these divergent backgrounds, most of the artists in this exhibition received their training at the country’s prestigious art schools: the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and the Academia de Bellas Arts de San Alejandro.
Cuba has a rich history of women artists who have made significant contributions to the country’s vibrant and diverse art scene. These women have explored various artistic mediums, styles, and themes, often breaking boundaries and challenging societal norms. Most of the female artists in the collection reflect upon their intense personal experiences and examine their identity within a strict social and political order. Their explorations are not merely internal but also external, expressing a desire to transcend the physical and psychological constraints imposed upon them by their country’s restrictions and relative isolation as an island nation. Through different strategies and symbolism, they convey their anxieties, dreams, and visions, often quite literally weaving together histories about themselves and their homeland. Their prevalent use of mixed media — especially repurposed materials — reflects the resourcefulness that modern Cuban women have developed to thrive despite limited available materials.
For some of these artists, the materials and creative process often inform the meaning of their works. For example, Poblet superimposes onto her portraits tiny plastic flowers, some of which were created by female inmates of the Holguin prison. According to Poblet, “The flowers, made from recycled material, are absolutely kitsch. However, the process of designing and making them satisfies a need for emancipation and creativity.” Garcia Marrero, in her Trap and Repression series, expresses the silent burdens and barriers in women’s lives by applying thread and black woven screens on her portraits. Mora, in her early work, Trapped in your own System, similarly reflects on women’s restricted functions in Cuban society, addressing issues of identity, connectivity, and survival.
Deconstruction and reconstruction are prevalent themes in the delicate and ethereal paper creations of Mora, Contino, Reyes, and Poblet, who allude to the fragility of their own existence. These women skillfully dismantle and recreate their lives, constructing layers of profound significance and meaning. Poblet weaves together elements of her past and present by cutting her photographs into tiny shards and rearranging them into new shimmering designs. Reyes transforms imperfection into beauty in her collages by repurposing tiny discarded bits of paper, often with floral drawings. For Reyes, her technique serves as a means of reconciling opposing elements: “I break and then rebuild, that is why the act of tearing, crushing, squeezing has a symbolic and aesthetic connotation.” Mora’s manipulated paper constructions depicting the five senses act as powerful metaphors for the boundless potential of the human mind to undergo transformation. Her internal, cerebral examination contrasts with Contino’s outward-focused approach, exemplified by her intricately cut paper reliefs depicting lush jungles, forests, and oceans, whose beauty contradicts an underlying allusion to violence and danger. In all of these artists’ works, paper poignantly embodies these women’s lives and personal journeys of renewal and reinvention.
Through their diverse representations of the female form, several artists address questions of identity and self-awareness. Glez, for instance, conveys one’s vanishing selfhood and the dissolution of individuality in her Sea Swell series of photographs. Here, nude female figures float in the sea in Presence, only to gradually disappear and submerge in Absence. Similarly, Poblet, in her mixed media series, Buoyancy, portrays herself floating in shimmering waters, evoking themes of introspection and existential weightlessness. In contrast, Rocio Garcia’s vibrant paintings of nudes acting out ambiguous narratives attempt to unravel the complexities of power dynamics within psychological and socio-political relationships. Drawing inspiration from cinematography, Garcia crafts immersive stories — often presented in diptychs — that challenge and captivate viewers.
Meanwhile, Ramos and Reyes focus on the portrayal of young female characters confronting societal realities. Ramos’s prints featuring her schoolgirl alter ego serve as a critique of the socio-economic landscape in Cuba, while Reyes's Crisis series hones in on the anxieties and uncertainties faced by the younger generation. Through their respective individual expressions, these artists offer nuanced insights into the complexities of female identity.
In contrast, Sanchez’s architectural maquettes and photographs evoke an awareness of a human presence in haunting images, despite the absence of figures. Sánchez’s photographs of her miniature imaginative architectural models — which she constructs meticulously by hand — explore the intimate relationship between memory and the built environment. Similarly, Contino’s landscapes allude to the passages and residual footprint of people and their impact on the environment. The contemplative, quiet nature of these pieces address the universal themes of the human condition and the collective search for meaning, prevalent in all these artists’ multifaceted works.
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About the Curator
Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D |
Arianne Faber Kolb, PhD, is an art historian and independent curator. She was the Executive Co-Director of the Carriage Barn Arts Center, a curator in the J.Paul Getty Museum’s Paintings and Drawings Departments, and a researcher in the Paintings Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has curated numerous exhibitions and her published work includes a book on Jan Brueghel the Elder, articles on old master painting, exhibition catalogues of contemporary Cuban art, and two children’s books on New Canaan architecture and history.
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About the Discoveries in Art
Certilman Family Collection |
Steven and Terri Certilman have acquired a significant collection of contemporary Cuban art over the past 25 years. They source pieces from the artists directly during their frequent travels to Cuba and their extensive collection track the creative journey of artists throughout their careers. Through their organization, Discoveries in Art, they aim to promote
Cuban artists through exhibitions and publications, fostering goodwill, understanding, and respect between the people of the United States and our neighbors to the south.
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| Exhibition Facts |
Dates Available:
January 2025 - December 2027
Schedule:
as of 02/01/25
2025
January - March 23
Amarillo Museum of Art
Armarillo, TX
Apri l5 - December 31
OPEN
2026
January 1 - July 31
OPEN
August 21, 2025 - Janaury 3, 2027
Harn Museum of Art
Gainesfville, FL
2027
OPEN
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Contents:
51 works
- List of Works with Images -
Lecturer Available:
Curator - Arianne Faber Kolb, Ph.D
Publication:
A Catalog is being published
Loan Fee:
Price on request
Insurance:
Exhibitor responsible
Shipping:
Exhibitor responsible
Req:
Appropriate security
Contact:
Jeffrey Landau, Director
Landau Traveling Exhibitions
Email: info@a-r-t.com Tel: 310-397-3098 |
Organized by
Los Angles, CA
Copyright 2024 Landau Traveling Exhibtions
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