The Villa Manuela Art Gallery emerged more than a decade ago with the purpose of covering the promotional demands by the members of the Plastic Arts Association on the Cuban Association of Cuban Artists and Writers (UNEAC by its acronym in Spanish).
The Gallery lays in an eclectic big house from the 20’s, carefully restored and located in H Street between 17 and 19 in Vedado, in the Cuban capital. Many people say it reproduces the environment of a gallery in the first world. Its halls exhibit pieces by Cuban creators from different trends, generations and plastic art expressions.
In order to celebrate its tenth anniversary, specialists have organized a sample with 19 contemporary Cuban artists that have been part of the history of the gallery.
Villa Manuela has become one of the most efficient galleries nationally due to the degree of specialization and competitiveness of its staff.
“We must not forget the gallery has given room for theoretical discussions when that practice was barely null in official spaces. Almost all artists that have exhibited their work in the gallery has had an audiovisual spot and a color catalogue”, noted David Mateo, who worked as its director for many years, during the opening of the exhibition.
With an average of ten exhibits per year, Villa Manuela does not have a permit for commercializing art, which perhaps favors the variety and richness of its proposals as it must not meet profit plans or to limit samples taking into account their commercial character.
Jorge López Pardo, Pedro de Oraá, Inés Garrido, René Francisco, Aimé García, Ernesto Javier Fernández, Mabel Poblet, Elvis Céllez, Alexandre Arrechea, Juan Carlos Alom, René Peña, Sandra Ramos, Abel Barroso, Ernesto Rancaño, José Villa Soberón, Belkis Ayón, Reineiro Tamayo, Roberto Diago and Eduardo Roca (Choco),are part of this sample.
The gallery was inaugurated with the exhibit Recuento de un premio, pieces by artists that had been presented the National Plastic Arts Award. It has continued exhibiting excellent art based on the principles of artistic meaning and its unquestionable ethic and aesthetic values above all.
It main purpose since its beginning has been to exhibit pieces by the members of the Association, which can be understood as a limitation and a guarantee, considering it doesn’t work with an endless source but its filter distinguishes it.
About a hundred samples have been in exhibition in the place which “revealed in that transition stage of the Cuban plastic art between one century and the next one our urge for inclusive and representative spaces, but at the same time strict spaces as the gallery”, pointed out Mateo.
