Among the extensive and varied calendar of events, concerts and exhibitions in the city of New York there is a particularly attractive one, the exhibition African Roots in the Cuban Art Space Gallery, Center for Cuban Studies. This group exhibition in the Chelsea district of Manhattan opened its doors last November at 231 West 29th Street 4, until January 11, 2014.
The wide selection features 100 works by 20 Cuban artists of several generations that included in their discourse the legacy of the African roots of Cuban culture. You can see works of folk art and other pieces made by artists who are graduates of art academies. Among those shown are Choco , Manuel Mendive, Ibrahim Miranda, René Peña and Clara Morera, whose works are presented for the first time on this site.
Rounding out the list are Carlos Caceres, Alazo , Alberto Casado, Fermin Fleites , Mederox , Alicia Leal, Montebravo , Cenia Gutierrez , Nicolas Lara, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal , Fidel Reina, Elio Vilva Zuniga , Ileana Sánchez Hing and Joel Jover.
This Cuban and religious touch to the New York Christmas comes through several demonstrations. Photographs, prints, paintings, drawings, crafts and fabric, wood, metal and ceramics meet. The exhibition is organized by Sandra Levinson, director of Cuban Art Space, and the commissioner is Sahnet Pérez- Stubbs.
Everything has been possible thanks to the strong and systematic work done by the Center for Cuban Studies, which has been sponsoring cultural exchange programs for many years with the aim of restoring the cultural relations between the two countries. As told in the website of the Center itself, in 1991 it led a successful lawsuit against the U.S. Treasury Department. Action that earned them the right to import and sell original works of art from Cuba, and since 1999 they have their own gallery for the exhibition and sale of contemporary Cuban art, promoting artists and organizing exhibitions. Lately they have amassed a collection of thousands of works of art, paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters, prints, photographs, publications, handmade crafts and others.
In this great cosmopolitan city, the capital of art and particularly in the famous Chelsea district, there is a corner for Cuban art. An exclusive oasis for the promotion of artists from Cuba, both of which have international recognition and those who continue to live and create in any part of the island and have a modest work.
African Roots is an excellent opportunity to approach part of what happens in the cultural landscape of Cuba. Afro-Cuban spirituality and the details arising from the practice of religious beliefs such as Santeria and Palo Monte are caught in the warmth of the colorful pieces. The works represent the principal deities of the Rule of Ocha, including Elegguá, Ochosi, Oggún, Orula, Changó, Yemayá, Obbatalá, Oyá, Ochún and Babalú Ayé, who should be kept happy by their worshippers regularly through festive ceremonies ,
This recreation of the life of the orishas and imagery from these beliefs is an expression of the legacy that remains after a long and complex process of acculturation which is based on African and Spanish cultures. In this particular sample the artistic heritage of Africa in Cuban contemporary visual arts is emphasized.
