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.
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.
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.
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
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