The Contemporary Art Space’s Third Show Approaches Cuban History and Culture through Artists’ Personal Journeys
El Espacio 23 (EE23) –the private art space founded by leading philanthropist, entrepreneur, and art collector Jorge M. Pérez – has debuted its highly anticipated third exhibition. Titled You Know Who You Are, Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, the show features works by over 100 Cuban and Cuban-diaspora artists as it explores the island’s place in collective memory and questions its history, deconstructs hierarchies, and reflects on notions of representation, race, gender, and human rights.
“I’ve always seen art as a vehicle for empathy, helping viewers transcend their individual experiences and tap into something larger,” said Pérez. “As oppression and socio-political upheaval continues to impact countless countries, we felt Cuban artists were particularly well-suited to show the world just what’s at stake. We are proud to offer artists a safe space to engage in dialogue about the past, present, and future of Cuba and look forward to sharing these works, many of which have never been displayed publicly.”
Made up entirely of works acquired following a 2016 donation of contemporary Cuban art to the Pérez Art Museum Miami, You Know Who You Are was curated by Patricia M. Hanna and Anelys Alvarez. Longtime leads of the Pérez Collection, both share a deep, but distinct, connection to the island nation, with Hanna being of Cuban descent but raised in South Florida and Alvarez having been born and raised on the island. Their unique backgrounds help ensure the show covers the experiences of Cuban citizens and their exiled counterparts.
“Through this latest exhibition, we continue our exploration of Cuban art and its impact across Latin America and the world,” said Hanna. “This is a deeply personal project for us, not only because of our own heritage but because many of these artists are expressing the same types of fears, hopes, and dreams many of us share. The notion of using an individual’s perspective to weigh in on much larger issues is a powerful one, and a key component of El Espacio 23’s broader mission.”
The show highlights works from many of Cuba’s most respected artists, including Wifredo Lam, Amelia Pélaez, Loló Soldevilla, and Zilia Sánchez in conversation with contemporary artists like Raúl Cordero, Reynier Leyva Novo, Belkis Ayón, Flavio Garciandía, Elizabeth Cerviño, and Juana Valdés. The show will also include a live performance from the lauded Tania Bruguera, which is set to take place during Miami Art Week. EE23 will also continue its ongoing residency program, welcoming two new Cuban artists during the same week – José Eduardo Yaque and Elizabeth Cerviño.
The exhibit is broken into six distinct sections, all of which contribute to the overall thematic exploration of Cuban art with unique perspectives:
– Heroes Do Not Weigh: The artists in this section focus on revisions of history and the rearticulation, or deconstruction, of the concept of the hero. History and its sources are examined and questioned in order to shed light on the murky, untold, or erased stories of the nation’s evolution. Some artists in this section depict political leaders with irreverence, exposing their vulnerabilities, and questioning their roles, as is the case with the image of Fidel Castro, which is utilized to explicitly challenge his power and expose his mechanism of propaganda.
– Rights: Centralizing around Tania Bruguera’s “Manifesto on Artists’ Rights,” the works in this section focus on the rights of artists to use their works as a way to communicate and challenge reality, government, and socially accepted ideas – and engage in this act without fear of punishment.
– There is Always a Larger Eagle Than You: The group of works brought together in this section reflect on structures of power at various levels, and the hierarchical systems that operate in all aspects of society. Utilizing the genre of portraiture, artists comment on the ecosystem of the art world, which includes patronage, collecting, and the art market, while others dialogue with the canon of art history using abstraction and conceptualism to either challenge or pay homage to artists who preceded them.
– Her in All Her Ways: The artists in this section, each with diverse backgrounds and differing relationships with Cuba, use their personal experiences to reflect on their own identity. In dialogue, the works foster conversations on culture, race, gender, and spirituality, resulting in a wide array of visual languages. From the first generation who started to incorporate abstraction into Cuban art in the 1950s to the youngest generation interested in representing contemporary society, all the artists present an open, inclusive, and ever-changing cultural identity.
– Something That Binds Me: This section toys with landscape, and the ways in which it is often used as a metaphor that goes beyond the physical aspects of a place to present personal cartographies and interpretations of a particular context. For Cubans, the physical aspects of the island range from being a source of inspiration for their natural beauty to being symbolic of issues such as migration, exploitation of the land, exile, and even the deaths of thousands of rafters in the Florida straits. As opposed to a neutral backdrop for the narrative of these works, the landscape is constantly moving and ultimately shifting the ways in which the works are examined.
– All That is Solid Melts into Air: The works brought together in this gallery feature cityscapes of Havana, Miami, and New York, along with interiors and materiality of familiar objects that harken the city setting both in their urban dimension and in the intimacy of the domestic space. These artists address fragmented memories; the constantly evolving dynamic among amnesia, nostalgia, and recollections; and the interconnectedness of individuals within a broader context.
To supplement the new exhibit, the EE23 team has also published the accompanying catalog titled You Know Who You Are: Recent Acquisitions of Cuban Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection. The book features newly commissioned essays by Janet Batet, Tania Bruguera, Abel González, and Ernesto Menendez-Conde, which point readers toward the political, social, and artistic landscapes that surround the works. This fully illustrated, bilingual (English, Spanish) publication is produced in collaboration with [NAME] Publications, a Miami-based non-profit press that has been publishing and presenting books since 2008 with an emphasis on histories and practices often marginalized in dominant art and design histories.
Visitors can enjoy the show free of charge. Hours of operation are Thursday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm. To reserve a time, and for more information about guided tours, please visit www.elespacio23.com or email info@elespacio23.com.