Reveal: Three rising Cuban artists exhibit their work at FIU’s Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum

By: Rubens Riol

From November 5th through November 8th, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University will host Reveal, a group exhibition featuring 35 works by three rising Miami-based Cuban artists: Jorge Wellesley, Kenia Arguiñao Vega, and Douglas Arguelles Cruz. Curated by Klaudio Rodríguez and organized by José Valdés-Fauli, President of the Museum’s governing Board, the exhibition was conceived as a pre-Art Basel event and includes works on canvas and paper, as well as sculptures.

Using diverse aesthetic approaches but sharing an interest in the conceptual value of the work of art, minimalist techniques, and a painstaking care for form, these rising artists, educated in Cuba’s most prestigious art schools, will share with visitors works from their most recent production. Dr. Jordana Pomeroy, the Museum’s new Director, says about the event: “In hosting this exhibition, we are offering these three artists, whose careers are at the early stages of development, the opportunity to present their work to a broad audience. We think that these artists possess promising talent, and we hope to continue with these type of exhibition in upcoming years.”

Jorge Wellesley (Havana, Cuba, 1979) graduated from the San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy, Havana, in 1998 and from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 2004. He conducted painting workshops at the ISA for five years. He was a founding member of the Department of Public Interventions project (DIP, in its Spanish acronym) and the five-artist project Espacio 08. Wellesley’s work embraces many genres and supports, including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, and video. It has been shown in museums in Cuba, Latin America, Europe, the United States, and Canada, such as the Queens Museum, NY, USA; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY, USA; the Musée National d´art Moderne et Contemporain Algiers (MAMA), Algeria; NHHC Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana, Cuba. His most recent exhibitions include: "Mobility and its Discontents”, The 8th Floor, NY, USA; “The Spaces Between: Contemporary Art From Havana", Bildmuseet, Umeå University, Sweden; “Games and Challenges”, Rainhart Gallery, Brussels, Belgium; "Estrictamente Impersonal" and Espacio 08, XI Havana Biennial.

Kenia Arguiñao Vega (Cienfuegos, Cuba; 1983) graduated from the Benny More Visual Arts Academy in Cienfuegos in 2006, and from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in 2011. She has participated in important national events, such as the Contemporary Cuban Art Salon and the Havana City Salon, and in parallel exhibitions at the 9th and 10th Havana Biennials. She was awarded the Gilbert Brownstone Foundation’s Residential Fellowship in Paris, France, in 2012. Her works are found in private collections in Switzerland, the United States, and Mexico, and have been exhibited at the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts; Havana Gallery; Fototeca de Cuba; Cuba Pavilion; ISA; Havana Galerie (Zurich, Switzerland); Nina Menocal Gallery (Mexico City); Art Position 11 International Contemporary Art Fair (Bern, Switzerland); and at the Havana Biennial.

Douglas Arguelles Cruz (Havana, Cuba, 1977) graduated from San Alejandro Fine Arts Academy, Havana, in 2000 and from the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), Havana, in 2004. He taught drawing and painting at the ISA Art School and was a member of the Department of Public Interventions project (DIP, in its Spanish acronym). He has participated in important national events, such as the Contemporary Cuban Art Salon, the Havana City Salon, and Académica 95 and 98, and in parallel exhibitions at the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Havana Biennials.

In Cuba, Arguelles Cruz’s works have been exhibited at the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts; La Casona Gallery; Havana Gallery; Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura; Wifredo Lam Center for Contemporary Art; and the Instituto Superior de Arte. Abroad, they have been seen at La Luz Gallery (Mérida, Mexico); Lucid Artist Co-op Gallery (Chicago, USA); Sala Amadis, Madrid, Spain; Musée National d´art Moderne et Contemporain Algiers (MAMA), Algeria; International Contemporary Art Fair, Shanghai, China; and the Contemporary art Biennial, Portugal.

Arguelles Cruz has made interventions in a variety of spaces across Cuba. He participated in the Young Art Week in Villa Clara, Cuba, and won the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts Prize at the 14th Havana City Salon in 2003. He also received the Curatorship Award in 2007 for Variaciones Goldberg, at La Casona Gallery. In 2008 he won the Batiscafo residential fellowship (England’s Triangle Art Trust and Gasworks in Havana) and in 2012, the Gilbert Brownstone Foundation’s Residential Fellowship in Paris, France. His work is found in private and institutional collections in Cuba, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, and Algeria.

Source: ArtNexus