Exhibition of Cuban Artists Mrs. Marlys Fuego & Mr. William Perez in El Barrio's Artspace PS 109 sponsored by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund will be inaugurated in New York.

Since last June, Artists Mrs. Marlys Fuego and Mr. William Perez have been artist-in-residence in El Barrio's Artspace PS109, with the support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. As a result of the residence developed the two-person exhibition "Self-Illuminated", opening up on Tuesday, September 26, 2017 from 7-11pm, curated by Mrs. Gabriela García Azcuy.

About "Self-Illuminated" in the words of the catalog the curator has said:
(...)To shine "with their own light" is the thesis of both creators for Self-illuminated, which they describe as catalysis of their abilities as creative individuals; since it is the light, in its widest concept -illuminating them, and being objectified in their work- the guiding element of the exhibition

Their discourses, quite independent from each other, create an atmosphere of dialogue and explicit interrelation when joining in the common exhibition space, which results from the complicity that has accompanied their personal-professional relationship for the last ten years.

The artists return to their work re-elaborating it within the new context that now surrounds them. They experiment, extend the formats, appeal to the manufacture, to the extreme meticulousness when elaborating each element. They create curious kinetic mechanisms or couture decoration. Each piece becomes a staging that mixes science, illusion, memories, realities, imaginaries (...)

El Barrio's Artspace PS109, opens with these artists its system of residences. Therefore, part of the objectives of the Marlys & William has been to transform one of the spaces of the center and turn it into a permanent gallery, where upcoming exhibitions will happen.

A total of 20 pieces make up the show: kinetic pieces, light boxes, canvases, collages, sculptures, installations. As a whole, "Self-Illuminated" is an environment where the light is the protagonist.

For more information consult 
www.selfilluminatedproject.com 
@selfilluminatedproject


MARLYS FUEGO GONZÁLEZ (Las Tunas, Cuba, 1988)
STUDIES/ESTUDIOS.2013-2014: Universidad de las Artes (ISA) (University of Arts), Havana, Cuba. 2003-2007: Academia Provincial de Artes Visuales (Provincial Academy of Visual Arts) "Oswaldo Guayasamín Monteverde",  Bayamo, Cuba. SOLO EXHIBITIONS/ EXPOSICIONES PERSONALES. 2016, Nuevos trabajos. BARCÚ Art Fair. Casa la Cicuta, Bogota, Colombia. 2015, Espacios íntimos.  Zona Franca, Collateral to the 12 Havana Biennial, Morro-Cabaña, Havana, Cuba. (With William Pérez). Pink. Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2012, Living together. Collateral to the 11 Havana Biennial, Estudio Alcázar, Havana, Cuba. (With William Pérez). GROUP EXHIBITIONS/ EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS; 2017, Poems. Kendall Art Center, Miami, United States. 82ºW / Six Degrees of Separation. Thomas Center Main Gallery, Gainesville, United States.2016, Arigato. Taller Gorría Gallery, Havana, Cuba. From far away. Abra Gallery, Miami, United States. Abre los ojos. Galiano Gallery,  Havana, Cuba.Sangre y fuerza. Pabellón Cuba. Havana, Cuba. La madre de todas las artes. Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam. Havana, Cuba. 2015, Made in Cuba. Cuban Art Space West Gallery, Santa Monica, United States. El paraíso de Freya. Miramar 601 Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Territorios. Collateral to the 12 Havana Biennial, Galiano Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Éticos y estéticos. Centro de Prensa Internacional, Havana, Cuba. PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS/INTERVENCIONES PÚBLICAS, 2015. Bon Voyage. Facade of the Galiano Gallery, 12 Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba. ART FAIRS/ FERIAS DE ARTE, 2016. BARCÚ Art Fair. With Collage Habana Gallery, Bogota, Colombia. 2013, Houston Fine Art Fair. With Collage Habana Gallery, Houston, United States.Art Moscow. With Collage Habana Gallery, Moscow, Russia. Palm Spring Fine Art Fair. With Salt Fine Art Gallery, Palm Spring, United States.  2012,  Art Moscow. With Collage Habana Gallery. Moscow, Russia.

WILLIAM JAIME PÉREZ FERNÁNDEZ (Cienfuegos, Cuba, 1965) 
STUDIES/ESTUDIOS, 1981-1986: Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Academy of Fine Arts) "San Alejandro", Havana, Cuba. 1977-1981: Escuela Elemental de Artes Plásticas (Elementary School of Fine Arts) "Rolando Escardó", Cienfuegos, Cuba. SOLO EXHIBITIONS/ EXPOSICIONES PERSONALES, 2015, Siempre hay un lugar. Salt Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, United States. Espacios íntimos. Zona Franca, Collateral to the 12 Havana Biennial, Morro-Cabaña, Havana, Cuba. (With Marlys Fuego). 2012, Living together.Collateral to the 11 Havana Biennial, Estudio Alcázar, Havana, Cuba. (With Marlys Fuego). Cartografía del alma. Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, Cuba. Los hombres se miden según el tamaño de sus sueños. First Ibero-American Art Fair (IAAF), Bellarte Gallery, Seoul, Korea, 2012. (With Mario González). 2011, La conjugación de la nada, arte cubano de fin de milenio. Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, Havana, Cuba. Living together. The Cuban Art Space, Center for Cuban Studies, New York, United States.(With Marlys Fuego). GROUP EXHIBITIONS/ EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS, 2016, Tradiciones desdibujadas. Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 

La madre de todas las artes. Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana, Cuba. 2015, HB. Collateral to the 12 Havana Biennial, PABEXPO, Havana, Cuba. 2014,

Ahora 12. Artis 718 Gallery, Havana, Cuba. 2012, Revolution not televised. Bronx Museum; Museo del Barrio; Queens Museum; Studio Museum in Harlem. New York, United States. Dry cleaning. Collateral to the 11 Havana Biennial, La Lavandería, Havana, Cuba. Cuba. Salt Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, United States. 2011, Living in Havana. Malborough Gallery, New York, United States. Punto y seguido. Villa Manuela Gallery, Havana, Cuba. SCULPTURES IN PUBLIC SPACES/ ESCULTURAS EN ESPACIOS PÚBLICOS, 2015. Made in Cuba. Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Los Angeles, United States. 2008. Rojo. Parque de las esculturas, Cienfuegos, Cuba. 1997. Monumento a la unidad. Adventurous Fall, Omø, Skælskor, Denmark. 1989. Monumento a Ramón Balboa. CAI Ramón Balboa, San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque, Cuba. ART FAIRS/ FERIAS DE ARTE, 2016. SCOPE Art Show. With Artis 718 Gallery, Miami, United States. 2013. Houston Fine Art Fair. With Villa Manuela Gallery. Houston, United States. Palm Spring Fine Art Fair. With Salt Fine Art Gallery, Palm Spring, United States. 2011. ARTBO. With Villa Manuela Gallery, Bogota, Colombia.

2009. PINTA. With Jacob Karpio Gallery. New York, United States. SCOPE Art Show. With Jacob Karpio Gallery. Basel, Switzerland. ART RESIDENCIES/ RESIDENCIAS ARTÍSTICAS, 2017. El Barrio´s Artspace PS109. Sponsored by Rockefeller Brothers Fund. New York, United States. 2013. Art Omi International Residency.  New York, United States. 2002. Nordisk Kunstnarsenter. Dale, Norway. MEMBERSHIPS/ MEMBRESÍAS, Member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) / Miembro de la Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC). OTHER EVENTS/ OTROS EVENTOS 2001.  The online charity action. New York, United States.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES/ OTRAS ACTIVIDADES PROFESIONALES, 1999. Jury of the National Prize of Visual Arts. Havana, Cuba/ Jurado del Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas. La Habana, Cuba.


GABRIELA GARCÍA AZCUY (Havana, 1989)
Graduated from History of Arts at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Havana. She is the curator of The Cuban Arts Group Collection and the co-director of Next Generation Project. She has curated around twenty  exhibitions among which are (Art)xiomas (Art Museum of the Americas (AMA MUSEUM), Spanish Cultural Center (CCEMIAMI) Despedida (Farewell) (Embassy of Spain in Cuba), Sensus (Fábrica de Arte Cubano) Sobre Cuchillos de Polvo (Over dust knives)(Colonial Art Museum) Lipstick (Fábrica de Arte Cubano), the three editions of Post-it. Exhibit and Sale of Contemporary Cuban Art (galleries network of the Visual Arts National Center "Collage Havana", FCBC, Havana, Cuba, 2013, 2014 and 2015), in the most recent edition of HB (collateral to the 12th Havana Biennial, Pabexpo, Havana, Cuba, 2015), and in Texturas Develadas (Unveiled Textures): Anthology of Collography in Cuba (group shows, Visual Arts Provincial Council, Cienfuegos, Cuba, 2013), among others. She has performed content management and editing/correcting jobs for the catalogs of the three editions of Post-it. Exhibit and Sale of Contemporary Cuban Art (2015, 2014 and 2013), (Art)xiomas (2015), HB (2015), España en la 12 Bienal de La Habana (Spain in the 12th Havana Biennial) (2015), Ernesto Rancaño. La carta que nunca te escribí (The letter I never wrote you) (2014) and Lisandra Ramírez (2014), among others. She has published articles about Cuban Art on Art OnCuba, ArteCubano, Arte por Excelencias, Upsalón and La Jiribilla.

Sagamore Hotel Presents Cuban Artists: The Prodigious Decade

South Florida’s leading “art hotel”, The Sagamore Hotel Miami Beach, is debuting its latest seasonal curated exhibit entitled, Cuban Artists: The Prodigious Decade on June 1st, 2017. This thoughtfully curated project showcases a significant selection of historic and recent artworks created by Cuban artists from the 80’s generation, some of the most important artists who pioneered Contemporary art on the island.

Glexis Novoa ‘Ongoing Conversation’, 2016.

Among the participating artists are: Gustavo Acosta, Alejandro Aguilera, José Bedia, Consuelo Castañeda, Humberto Castro, Arturo Cuenca, Ana Albertina Delgado, Tomás Esson, José Manuel Fors, Florencio Gelabert, Flavio Garciandía, José Franco, Rogelio “Gory” Lopez Marín, Marta María Pérez-Bravo, Carlos Rodríguez Cárdenas, José Toirac, Rubén Torres Llorca, Juan Sí-González, Ricardo Rodríguez Brey, Tomás Sánchez, Leandro Soto, Glexis Novoa, Cesar Beltran, Jose Franco, and Tonel. Some works are consigned from Pan American Art Projects, Dorfsman Fine Arts, Durban Segnini Gallery, David Castillo Gallery and The Oscar B. Cintas Foundation. 

The exhibit shows this generation of Cuban artists who emerged through a series of ruptures which then led to the emergence of New Cuban Art as Luis Camnitzer referenced in his eponymous book. At the same time, the exhibit will give the audience an idea of how vigorous the work of this key group of Cuban artists was and continues to be, regardless of where they have been working from.

Ruben Torres, ‘Brother will you spare a coin’.

The term “Decada Prodigiosa” named by Cuban art critic Rufo Caballero, describes a turning point in the history of Cuban Art. The curators of the show – Dr. Adriana Herrera and Willy Castellanos from Aluna Curatorial Collective, and Sebastien Laboureau, Sagamore Hotel’s art advisor – appropriated Caballero’s term because it encapsulates the spirit of a time that was crucial to the art history of the island. It was a time of aesthetic divergence that questioned the relation of the artists with official institutions, undermined the narrative and iconography of political power, as well as interrogated the function and potential of art itself within society. This wayward generation resorted to conceptual strategies, such as the return to forms of expression extracted from popular culture, the appropriation of international movements, and the depiction of local rituality.

Jose Bedia, ‘Ofrecimiento’ 2017.

This exhibit brings together a selection of works by artists who were raised after the ’59 revolution, and who mostly attended the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) school in Havana. These artists pushed the limits of what was permitted and prohibited at that time and thus emerged in tension with what the Revolution’s authorities considered as their fundamental tenets, for the Revolution sought to forbid anything that might stand opposed to its core values.

Artist Arturo Cuenca

Today, these artists continue to create powerful artwork that reaffirm the value of their artistic journey. They work in La Havana, Miami and other cities without considering the hordes of consumers that flood the island in search of Cuban Art, yet unaware of the movement’s genesis and history. This selection of pioneers who lived on and around the island’s shores, allows the viewer to feel and experience the undeniable courage of a generation of innovators who made and continue to make works of art without any rules but their own. The exhibition opens on Thursday, June 1st from 7 – 9:30pm *Private Preview, by invitation online. June 2 – August 31 *Open to the Public.