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4/3/2002

Made in Cuba

Jonathan Ferrara gallery, New Orleans

"...as Cuba continues to evolve, its culture must not go unnoticed or unforgotten"
-Holly Block, Author, Art Cuba, The New Generation

(New Orleans, January 26, 2002) New Orleans artist, gallery owner and arts entrepreneur Jonathan Ferrara presents MADE IN CUBA, Contemporary Art From Cuba 2002, a major exhibition of contemporary Cuban Art from March 2-30, 2002. This show is the next installment in Ferrara's ongoing quest to present the latest and most contemporary and socially relevant works to the public. No stranger to controversial topics, as seen in the highly publicized 1996 "Guns In The Hands Of Artists" exhibition, Ferrara joined forces with Cuban artist and the exhibition's co-curator, Damian Aquiles and from there MADE IN CUBA was born.

This past summer, Ferrara traveled to Havana to meet Aquiles where he exposed Ferrara and his colleagues to the burgeoning art scene in Havana, one of the world's current hot spots for contemporary art, conducting over thirty studio visits, attending gallery openings, artist gatherings and performances. This was a first hand look at life in Cuba from the perspective of the Cuban artist...artist to artist. "MADE IN CUBA is not just an exhibition of Cuban art, it is a process, a discovery and a collaboration." Says Ferrara

Working non-stop in Havana, Ferrara selected eight artists and their works to be part of this major exhibition of Cuban art. "Faith in art and the creative process brought me to Cuba. What I found there was an artist's utopia ... an isolated environment filled with thriving intellectual artists in the midst of the economic struggle and social restraint that is life in Cuba today." Says Ferrara. Painting, sculpture, photography, installation and performance art make MADE IN CUBA a diverse offering and a wonderful glimpse into the creative culture in Cuba today. In addition to the studio visits, Ferrara invited documentary filmmaker Jason Berry to join him and gather the initial footage for a future documentary about Cuban art. Using the exhibition and the studio visits as a foundation; Berry will feature special excerpts from this footage during the exhibition to give the public a further look into the lives of Cuban artists.

MADE IN CUBA features the work of the newest generation of artists in Cuba who are pushing the proverbial envelope. All the artists are between 25 and 45 years old and many have exhibited their works in South America, Europe, Canada, Central America and the Far East. Havana is considered one of the hotspots in the art world and the work of these artists reflects that creative spirit and vibrancy.

MADE IN CUBA features the work of eight artists:
Angel Delgado - Drawings and Sculpture
Eduardo Ponjuan - Sculpture
Damian Aquiles - Paintings and installation
Ernesto Leal - Paintings
Ibrahim Miranda - Map Works
Rene Francisco Rodriguez - Painting and Sculpture
Lidzie Alvisa - Large Scale Photography
Ezequiel Suarez - Mixed Media Works on Sandpaper
From the intricate soap carving sculpture and drawings on handkerchiefs of Angel Delgado to the biting conceptual sandpaper works by Ezequiel Suarez that deal with personal privacy, MADE IN CUBA features a diverse offering of the art being created in Cuba right now. Ibrahim Miranda's engravings comment on the physical form of the island of Cuba and how this affects its culture. Ernesto Leal's grand paintings are more abstract in nature using a secret process to produce multi-layered canvases that remind the viewer of stone and marble. Lidzie Alvisa's oversize photographs of straight pins seemingly attached to the female figure speak of the impossible attractions women deal with, regardless if they want them or not. Two of the older artists in the exhibition who are professors at Cuba's Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and former international artistic collaborators are Eduardo Ponjuan and Rene Francisco Rodriguez. The paintings and sculpture of Rene Francisco Rodriguez speak in a language of their own, the Tubosutra, utilizing the toothpaste tubes allocated to each Cuban as his raw material to communicate his vision of being "pushed or squeezed." The sculpture of Eduardo Ponjuan predominantly takes the form of books, books as faces and masks, exploring the union of the decorative and the mechanical, the idea of knowledge as a mask. Damian Aquiles rounds out this sensational group as artist and as Ferrara's Cuban co-curator. Aquiles' work is multi-dimensional, as are most Cuban artists' works. His detailed paintings evoke images of daVinci drawings and his special oxidation process combined with found objects give his work an old world feel. Aquiles and Delgado will travel to New Orleans for the exhibition with Aquiles doing a site-specific installation at the gallery and Delgado performing his highly provocative performance art.

MADE IN CUBA will present art works from Cuba never before seen in the US. The exhibition will be on exhibit to the general public from March 5 - 30, 2002 with an opening reception to meet Damian Aquiles and Angel Delgado on Saturday March 2, 2002 6-10PM. The artwork from MADE IN CUBA is available only at Jonathan Ferrara gallery or online.

Jonathan Ferrara gallery is located at 841 Carondelet Street on the Historic St. Charles Avenue Street car line in the Arts District. The gallery opened in April 2000 and is housed in an 8,000 sq ft commercial contemporary arts building that Ferrara renovated in 1999/2000. The complex features the offices of an architect, a graphic designer, a photographer, The New Orleans Film Festival, an antique restoration studio and gallery frame shop along with Ferrara's personal living and studio space. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday 12-6pm and by appointment and has monthly openings on the first Saturday of the month featuring the work of local, national and international artists working in painting, sculpture, glass, metalwork, mixed media, photography, installation, performance and video art.

Jonathan Ferrara and his eponymous gallery are known for their socially conscious, topically relevant, cutting edge exhibitions of contemporary art. The genesis of MADE IN CUBA can be traced back to another highly successful art exhibition "Guns In The Hands Of Artists". "Guns In The Hands Of Artists" became a blockbuster art exhibition that was featured in The New York Times, Time magazine and on ABC's Good Morning America and later traveled to New York and Washington DC. This controversial exhibition created by artist Brian Borrello and produced by Ferrara featured guns taken off the streets of New Orleans and channeled to artists across the community for use in their artwork. From AK 47's to rifles to handguns, artists used the guns as raw materials in their artworks. This exhibition launched Ferrara's career and introduced him to the nation as a promoter and producer of high quality, socially impactive art exhibitions that stimulate the public's collective conscience. Since "Guns In The Hands Of Artists", Ferrara has longed for another project to stimulate the public and MADE IN CUBA is that exhibition.

Image: Rene Francisco Rodriguez, "Box"(1) From the Series "Tubo Sutra"

Jonathan Ferrara gallery 841 Garondelet Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 6pm

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