From November 15th to the 17th, as part of the celebrations for the tenth anniversary of the city of Doral, located in southern Florida, Art Fest @ Doral is taking place where for the first time there is involved a Cuban delegation, along artists from Serbia , India, Panama , Colombia , Puerto Rico , Ecuador and Peru , among other countries.
Convened by the Cuban Tomas Oliva, plastic artist, who has lived for more than two decades in the United States, eleven Cuba artists were selected to integrate the payroll of the exhibition What the tide brought (Cuba) to be held in the Carlos Albizu University, Miami, venue of the Art Fest @ Doral fair.
A few days before the opening of the show, Tomas Oliva came to Havana to finalize the details of this exhibition shows that had to be very quickly organized and shared with OnCuba some details of the exhibition and his future projects.
“I tried to bring three generations of artists. Of the older , start with Humberto Hernández Martínez ( The Black ), followed by Mario García Portela, Zoila Iris Agüero Ortega and Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, who belongs to my generation.
“I included some of my former students, who are part of a middle generation. Among them are: Jorge Romero Garcia, Alejandro Garcia Navarrete, Alejandro Sain Alfonso and Luisa Correa Martinez.
“The third generation consists of young people who are still studying in the ISA (University of Arts of Cuba) and are part of the project known as the Fourth Pragmatics. They are Alejandra Oliva Oliveros, Ruth Mariet Trueba Castro and Manuel Daniel Lugo Rodríguez. I also participated as a kind of link between the two sides since I resided for 20 years in Seattle and have lived for some time in Miami. “
“The exhibition is characterized by the diversity and variety of painting styles. Humberto Hernández and García Portela are landscapers. Iris Zoila Aguero works abstraction, but has also dabbled in Latin and North American Aboriginal themes. The younger ones move in the field of installation “.
“I would be interested for next year to do something organized with more time and include a greater number of Cuban artists. This was a good attempt but I think the culture goes beyond all semantic will very deep roots that feed from a remote past.
“I would also like to exhibit on Cuba because the subject on which I am working is related, from the conceptual point of view, with the cemí ( Taíno concept designates both a deity or ancestral spirit as to certain sculptural objects that host these spirits ) . It is an exhibition of paintings, sculpture and drawing in high resolution, along with some small format prints. It has nothing to do with my previous work.
“After ten years working on this theme in Miami I did a show entitled there is an omen in the air. It has many links with Aboriginal culture and modernity Cuban human being.
“The symbol of the toilet, very used by me, joins the symbol of the Taino cemí. This is a free reappropriation of the latter which I manipulated in a totally free way. I have presented in Cuba a couple of projects. Hopefully they will approve one “the artist concludes.