Art Is Still Here
As we at the gallery round the final bend of the Cuban Contemporary Exhibit and head into a fully-online launch of the new May Exhibit, we’re reflecting on what it means to engage and enjoy art in the midst of such strange circumstances. As we see others share their stories and images of favorite works, newly-created compositions and artistic experiments, and even humorous recreations of masterpieces, we find ourselves heartened daily. Art is still a part of our lives -and your lives- and perhaps we all find ourselves drawn to beauty in the midst of crisis and uncertainty. We may be adjusting where and how we engage it, but art is still here. From our end, we’re also constantly adjusting how we deliver the experience of art to our community.
The Cuban Contemporary Exhibit is still live on our website and Artsy, with a number of pieces yet available. While this was our first exhibit mounted entirely online, all the usual work went into this selection, which, like all special exhibits, was about a year in the making. This exhibit is a collection of works chosen for their variety of subjects, ideas, and materials, handled especially skillfully by five artists. Dorian Agüero Anaya, Andy Llanes Bultó, Osmeivy Ortega, Maikel Sotomayor, and Frank David Valdés represent an emerging generation of powerhouse artists, educated in Cuban art schools, open to manifold influences from both inside and outside the island, and producing extensive bodies of work marked by a distinctive aesthetic and maturity of voice. Building on the work and research of the first Cuban Contemporary Exhibit two years ago, this iteration brings entirely new work from an impressive young cohort.
The May Exhibit will begin online on Tuesday, and there you’ll find beautiful, contemporary examples of abstraction, neo-surrealism, the conceptual marriage of fibers and printmaking, narrative-oriented representations of the figure, and more. We’ll use First Friday as an opportunity to share more on each of our May Artists and their work, and to throw out a few special deals and hopefully have some great art chats. In short, we’re proud to represent the work of these artists, and we want to make sure you get to see it.
We deeply appreciate that those who are able are still shopping for artwork. We’ve been asked about other ways to show support for the gallery right now, and there are a few:
- You can become a member. We love our members and show our love through perks. Members help sustain the gallery’s function as an educational and art-viewing institution within our community (and now online).
- You can purchase merch. We curate our online merch shop to include beautiful, functional items that we all personally love and use. Buying merch during the pandemic will help the gallery and bring something nice into your everyday life.
- You can share your feedback, letting us know what you’d like to see and how you’d like to engage. We pride ourselves on constant learning, and adaptation is incredibly important during this time.
Mainly, know that if you’re reading this, we appreciate you. You’re why we get to keep doing what we do. Keep looking for beautiful things. Keep looking at art. We’re here during and after this worldwide paradigm shift, and art is, too.