Korda
Osvaldo Salas
Roberto Salas
Raul Corrales
Rene Pena
Marta Maria Perez Bravo
Jose ManuelFors
Juan Carlos Alom
Cirenaica Moreira
duardo Hernandez
Joaquin Blez
Featuring photographs by 10 Cuban artists. The photographers are Korda, Osvaldo Salas, Roberto Salas abd Raul Corrales (revolutionary works); Rene Pena, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Jose Manuel Fors, Juan Carlos Alom, Cirenaica Moreira, and Eduardo Hernandez (contemporary works). Also included are some nude portraits from the 1920s by Joaquin Blez.
featuring photographs by 10 Cuban artists.
The photographers are KORDA,
Osvaldo Salas, Roberto Salas abd Raul Corrales (revolutionary works);
René Peña, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, José Manuel Fors, Juan Carlos Alom,
Cirenaica Moreira, and Eduardo Hernandez (contemporary works). Also
included are some nude portraits from the 1920s by Joaquin Blez.
An opening reception will be Friday, March 28 6:30-9 p.m.
The show will close May 17.
Specializing in art from the Caribbean basin, the Pan American Art
Gallery features avante garde and contemporary Cuban works, as well as
contemporary and folk art from Haiti and Jamaica.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Santiago de Cuba at the end of the 19th Century, Joaquin Blez
began working as a photojournalist for El Figaro, a weekly,
illustrated magazine in Havana. He traveled to Europe and settled in
Milan in the early 20s where he studied at the School of Applied
Chemistry and Physics of Photography. These studies inspired his
experimentation in technique and effects that came to mark his works
which were printed from glass plates. In the 1920s he had established
himself as an accomplished portrait photographer of the wealthy class in
Havana and earned a gold medal in 1923 for his shots in El Mundo
newspaper. He participated in the first National Salon of Photography in
Havana, the International Photography Exposition in Berlin and was
selected to show in the Cuban Pavilion in the New York International
Fair in 1938. He also had numerous shows throughout the U.S., Europe and
Cuba in the 1940s. He is most famous for his nude photographs, which
came to represent the art deco movement and Belle Epoch in Cuba.
From 1959 to 1961 Corrales was one of the chosen photographers to
accompany Fidel Castro. Before this he worked as a photojournalist. His
most recognized works are images from the birth of the Cuban Revolution.
He then moved on to capture images of post-revolutionary daily life in
the Cuban countryside. He received an award from the Cuban Museum of
Fine Arts in 1996. There are several books published on his work. He
currently lives in Cohimar where he used to photograph Hemingway.
Alberto Diaz, known as Korda, got his start as a fashion photographer
and he became one of the most important photographers in Epic
Revolutionary Photography. His most famous work is a portrait of Che
Guevara known as Heroic Soldier, an image recognized across the world
as a symbol of the Cuban Revolution. He has had exhibits around the
world, including the U.S. and has received several awards and distinctions.
Osvaldo Salas began his studies at a young age at the San Alejandro
Academy which he left to take his family to the United States. He became
member of the Imwood Camera and photography club in New York in 1947
where he began by shooting baptisms and weddings and ultimately opened a
studio in Madison Square Garden. By the 1950s he was an established
photographer having photographed the likes of Dali, Joe Di Maggio and
Rocky Marciano. In 1955 he met Fidel Castro and returned to Cuba in 59
to follow Fidel in his trips and document the Revolution as
photojournalist for the periodicals Gramma and Revolución publications.
In this facet he found himself drawn to images of the landscape of the
revolution and portraits of its important figures. His portraits capture
in an instant the depth of the personality of his models as he brings
them to life.
Roberto Salas started working in photography at fifteen, following in
the footsteps of his famous father, Osvaldo Salas. He initially worked
as a photojournalist in New York and returned to Cuba at the age of 19
to, in his words, make photography, before I only took pictures. In
the early 60s, he worked on the Cuban Epic Photos, the images
published in the Cuban newspapers following the steps of the revolution.
He even set up camp in the national palace to capture Fidel and Che at
work in their first steps. He had his first personal show in 1963,
Tumba, Bembé, Batá and since then has had over 50 personal shows in Cuba
and abroad including the United States, Latin America, Mongolia, Vietnam
and Cambodia. His recent work focuses on the human body and he chooses
to work with black models to step out of the typically white focus in
black and white portraiture to capture the Caribbean essence.
Born in Havana, Marta Maria and her husband, also a well-known
contemporary Cuban painter, currently reside in Monterrey, Mexico. She
was granted artist residency in Oregon, Maine and Ohio. She has had
several personal shows in many European countries, South America and the
U.S. and her work can be found in many public permanent collections.
Photographs Do Not Bend in Dallas hosted a show of her work in 1997. She
is the most important and internationally recognized contemporary Cuban
photographer. The subject matter of her work always includes parts of
her body and reflects emotional and psychological aspects of the artist.
Jose Manuel Fors was born in Havana and graduated from the San Alejandro
Academy of Art. He is part of the 1980s generation of artists who
rediscovered photography as a means of aesthetic expression beyond the
photojournalism of the previous periods. His work focuses on photo
mosaics with a repetitive theme focused primarily on elements from
nature. His subject matter incorporates human elements, concepts of
memory, and the way that our environment affects us culturally. He has
had personal exhibitions in Cuba, Europe, the U.S. and Japan since 1991.
Currently living in Havana, René Peña has gained world acclaim (one of
his pieces is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts
Houston). He has had several personal shows since 1991 in Cuba, Spain,
and the United States. He has also participated in over 40 collective
shows. In 2000 he won the first prize at the 4th Biennial of Caribbean
art held in Santo Domingo with his series White Things. His work
focuses on the use of self portrait and details of his body as a symbol
of transformation and cultural identity.
Born in Havana, Juan Carlos Alom began his involvement in photography
with studies at the International Institute of Journalism and he has
been exhibiting since 1991. His works have been displayed in Cuba and
the U.S. One of his photographs, Solo tu Cabes en la palma de mi mano
was illustrated in Time Magazine's Issue of the 100 best photos of 2000.
Several of his pieces were also exhibited at the L.A. County Museums
display of Cuban photography in July of 2001. His work is indicative of
the change in Cuban photography in the early 1990s, a turn towards using
the subject to reflect upon inner turmoil through ritualized icons and
distortion of the subject matter. Alom is currently working in film in
addition to still photography and has produced several short films,
which have been shown in New York and Cuba.
Hernandez is a graduate of the San Alejandro Academy of Art and works as
a professor of lithography. He has been exhibiting since 1992 in Cuba
and Europe and received the first place in lithography in the 3rd Salon
of Fine Arts in 1985. His photo collages incorporate images of primarily
the male nude with materials such as glass and metal. His most recent
work, the series Fragile Bodies, utilizes these different materials to
represent the dichotomy of strength and fragility in the subject.
Cirenaica Moreira finds her roots in theater and turns the camera on
herself to create an image of a narrative, a story. She uses her
experience in theater to stage the scenes of her photography. She has
been exhibiting since 1992 and her works can be found in collections in
the U.S., Latin America and Europe. She is also published in several
journals and books including Art Cuba: the New Generation.
Image: Osvaldo Salas, Fidel with Hemingway (1960)
Lisa Taylor, Taylor-Made Press, 923 Salmon Dr., Dallas, TX 75208
214-943-1099 fax 214-943-9285
The gallery is open Tuesday- Friday 10 a.m. 6 p.m., Saturday noon-6 p.m. Call 214-522-3303
Pan American Art Gallery
3303 Lee Parkway, Suite 101, Dallas