NKAME: A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE CUBAN PRINTMAKER BELKIS AYÓN, SELECTED AMONG THE BEST ART OF 2017 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES December 8, 2017 Yadira Leyva Ayón © The New York Times The Nkame Exhibition: A Retrospective of the Cuban Printmaker Belkis Ayón, exhibited this summer at Museo del Barrio, New York (June 13 - November 5) was selected among the best of the art of 2017 by the New York Times, according to the selection of Holland Cotter, one of three New York Times art critics who shared his picks. Link to the article HERE Likewise, Holland Cotter, Art Critical Co-Director of The New York Times, reviewed the exhibition at Museo del Barrio, NY. Link to the article HERE PREVIOUS NEWS NEXT NEWS

PROPOSAL AT AGE 20 Belkis Ayón and Isary Paulet Servando Cabrera Moreno Art Gallery December, 1988 PIECE FOR FLUTE AND CLARINET We are simply between two worlds, where fantasy, where THE FABULOUS, have the floor. If for a moment we put aside the virtuosity of the printmaker, which are everywhere here, and evade a certain illustrative character, not because these things are despicable, but because she wanted to bring them to the center of her expression, then we would have to face a message directly poetic, based on harmony, on a lyricism that plays with reasons and beautician desires, which make a delicate piece for flute and clarinet from the vision of reality. Everything unfolds like the scenery of a story: in Isary, the characters, like crazy pixies, are distributed following the whims of the kaleidoscope, playing, I believe, the role of the only saviors of a world that increasingly needs and wishes the arrival of some representative of the magical world capable of transforming it into something else. Spielberg? Neo-infantilism? Like Isary, Belkis works with mystery in her work, drawn from such perfect configurations, of colors so peacefully pleasing, that they arouse unease. But suddenly one has the feeling that we are only facing an idealization, too much tenderness, almost in a peaceful reverie, in that unreal film that cannot continue, that cannot be, that one more moment and explodes. It may be that neither of the two interpretations is exact, it does not matter, they are only the style that fits for these expressive centers, surrounded by the deployment of an arsenal of irreproachable techniques and invoices. Because some could stay there, in the resplendent quality of the finish of their products. That finish is nothing more than the superficial of the art of these charming. The elements are well managed by the magician to integrate them into the illusion. Then the feeling is presented in the force of a very own saying in each case that in Isary and Belkis, in their proposals, they have the presentation of a meticulous structure, many times thought and calculated, destined to transmit security or very security purified that it becomes practically brittle. Aldo Menendez (Text for the exhibition catalog)

PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK NKAME. BELKIS AYÓN July 20, 2009 © Belkis Ayón Estate The National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Council of Plastic Arts, José A. Figueroa, and the Belkis Ayón Estate presented at the MNBA Theater. ARTE CUBANO Building, the books: NKAME, Belkis Ayón and José A. Figueroa. A Cuban Self-Portrait, with the participation of Orlando Hernández. NKAME.Belkis Ayón: this book documents in a meticulous way, the life and work of the Cuban artist Belkis Ayón PROJECT DIRECTOR: Dr. Katia Ayón EDITORIAL CONCEPT: Cristina Vives AUTHORS: José Veigas, Cristina Vives, David Mateo, Lazara Menéndez DESIGN: Laura Llópiz 296 PAGES | 400 IMAGES | BILINGUAL SPANISH / ENGLISH EDITION TURNER EDITORES MADRID WITH THE SPONSORSHIP OF: Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland | The Von Christierson Collection, London, England | Afrikan Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands | Cisneros-Fontanalls Foundation, Miami, USA | Alex and Carole Rosenberg, New York, USA | Brownsote Foundation, Paris, France | Caguayo Foundation, Stgo de Cuba, Cuba Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) left after her death a set of essential works for contemporary engraving. The religion and the Abakuá Secret Society (original from African Calabar, and settled in Cuba since the 19th century) served the artist as a "source" and a "reference" to construct a universal discourse against marginality, frustration, fear, censorship, impotence and in favor of the search for freedom. This society, created by men and for men, stigmatizes and segregates women and, in turn, maintains strict discipline and maintains unassailable ethics and mystery. Belkis penetrated the space of the rite as far as she was allowed, and studied all the sources of information at her reach. As a result, she created a breathtaking iconography and interpreted the religious myth from her position as an artist, woman, black, and Latina in the late 20th century. Nkame, synonymous with praise and salutation in the Abakuá language, pays tribute to a creator who left a message of life with her death. José A. Figueroa. A Cuban Self-Portrait: this book narrates more than four decades of the life of a country through the photographic work of José A. Figueroa. RESEARCH AND EDITING: Cristina Vives ESSAYS BY: Cristina Vives, Dannys Montes de Oca DESIGN: Pepe Menéndez 384 PAGES | 384 IMAGES | BILINGUAL SPANISH / ENGLISH EDITION TURNER EDITORES MADRID WITH THE SPONSORSHIP OF: The Busson Foundation Trust José A, Figueroa (Havana, 1946), began his professional life as a photographer in September 1964, when he began working at the Korda Studios in Havana. Due to his age, social extraction, and training, he is part of a generation of "transition" that was at the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, too young to be its manager, but adult enough as a conscious and analytical witness. His life and work, place him between "the inside" and "the outside" of that story. Also has allowed him to document, evaluate and symbolize many facets, both of the public and private life of the nation - two sides of the same coin - over many years; most importantly, it's a work made in Cuba or from a Cuban perspective. These characteristics and circumstances are, indeed, rare among their contemporaries or predecessors, seen individually. A Cuban self-portrait is approximately a portion of that story, through the work of one of the essential names in the history of Cuban photography. Promotional price of sale to the public in the presentation: 250 MN. Courtesy of the Belkis Ayón Estate; José A. Figueroa and the sponsors. PREVIOUS NEWS BACK TO NEWS

HOLD ME IN PAIN Unterstütze mich, halte mich hoch, im Schmerz. Belkis Ayón / Hold me in pain Kirche St. Barbara, Breinig, Germany November, 1995 Curators: Helmo Hernández, Ludwig Foundation of Cuba Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Becker, Ludwig Forum Aachen Words to the catalog: “Among the artists who develop the theme of God in their paintings. We are passionate about Belkis Ayón for several reasons. She comes from Cuba, and the native population of Africa on this island has achieved in Santeria a special mixture of Christian icons with the orishas of the Yoruba religions. The fact that Belkis Ayón deals with these issues makes her an artist who began in the 80s when a new perspective on religions and their importance for the lives of mankind emerged throughout the world. And in the socialist state of Cuba, this occupation has a meaning: the contradiction assumed with the religious members of the Party enriches the political practice. Belkis Ayón is a draftsman, and a printmaker with precision, subtlety, and perfection rarely seen. And yet that desire for perfection is not put at the service of the search for any beauty, but for a respectful contradiction in works full of concerns and dignity ”(Wolfgang Becker, in Belkis Ayón, Halte mich hoch… (Breining, 1995).

SOLO EXHIBITIONS Phillys Kind Gallery, New York, 1998 Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, California, 1998 St Barbara Church, Aachen, Germany, 1995 1989 Proposal at the age of twenty (Belkis Ayón and Isary Paulet), Servando Cabrera Art Gallery, December 23-January, 1989, Havana. . . 1990 Sikán Kien, Leopoldo Romañach Art Gallery, June 30, Caibarién, Villa Clara, Cuba. . Sikan Kien, the powerful and wise, Art Gallery III Congress, August, Ranchuelo, Villa Clara, Cuba. . . 1991 Sacred memory, Alamar Art Center, June 22, Havana / Art Center, Guantánamo, Cuba. . . 1992 Art Cubain Contemporain (Belkis Ayón and Eduardo Yáñez), Center d'Exposition de la Gare L'Annonciation, May 1-27, L'Annonciation, Québec, Canada. . Engravings, Saw Gallery, May 7, Ottawa, Canada. . . 1993 Evidences of vindication (Belkis Ayón, Isary Paulet, Ibrahim Miranda), Centro de Arte 23 y 12, October-November, Havana. . I always go back. Engravings by Belkis Ayón, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, November 30-December, Havana. . . 1994 I always come back, Galleria Colorenero, May 17-June 11, Milan, Italy. . Belkis Ayón and Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, [Galleria] Cheiros, Palazzo Colonnese Valeri, December 8-January, 1995, Vicenza, Italy. . . nineteen ninety five I always go back. Personal exhibition Belkis Ayón, Grau Gallery, Visual Arts Development Center, July, Cienfuegos, Cuba. . Unterstütze mich, halte mich hoch, im Schmerz. Belkis Ayón (Hold me in pain. Belkis Ayón), Kirche St Barbara, November 3-19, Breinig / Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany. . . nineteen ninety six Belkis Ayón, Cuban artiste, Galerie Bourbon-Lally, April 19, Pétionville, Haiti. . Two Contemporary Cuban Artists: Belkis Ayón and Nelson Domínguez, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, April 21-August 2, Hempstead, New York, United States. . . 1997 Ángel Ramírez + Belkis Ayón. The New Wave of Cuban Art - I, Gallery gan, March 31-April 26, Tokyo, Japan. . Grand Pas de Trois. Sixth Biennial of Havana, (Norberto Marrero, Belkis Ayón and Juan Carlos Menéndez), Zulueta esq. a Refugio, 5th. floor, apt. 52, May 3-31, Havana. . . 1998 Desasosiego / Restlessness, Couturier Gallery, March 6-April 11, Los Angeles, California, United States. . Bernardo Marqués / Belkis Ayón, Havana Galerie, August 27-December 5, Zurich, Switzerland. . Belkis Ayón / Elsa Mora. Recent Work, Phyllis Kind Gallery, September 19-October 31, New York, United States. . Belkis Ayón & Ángel Ramírez. The New Wave of Cuban Art –II, November 6-December 20. Gallery Gan, Tokío, Japan. . . 1999 Rites. Photographies by René Peña; Collographies by Belkis Ayón, Bourbon-Lally Gallery, May 14, Pétionville, Haiti. . . 2000 I always go back. Collographies by Belkis Ayón. Tribute exhibition, Seventh Havana Biennial, Galería Habana, November 15-December 18, Havana. . . 2001 Images from silence. Collographies and matrices by Belkis Ayón, National Museum of Fine Arts, July, Havana. For a return. Collographies of Belkis Ayón, Caguayo Foundation, Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design, November 2, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. . . 2002 Belkis Ayón. La Huella Múltiple 2002 (personal exhibition), April 19-May 19. La Casona Gallery, Havana. . . 2003 Belkis Ayón Early Work, Patricia Doran Graduate Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art, April 4-19, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. . . 2004 Resurrection. Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) Collographs from Cuba, Massachusetts College of Art, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania and Brandywine Workshop, October 11-January 4, 2004, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. . . I always go back. Collographies of Belkis Ayón, Recoleta Cultural Center, May 21-June 21, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Reunion. Exhibition of Belkis Ayón and his students. Exhibition in tribute to the artist, José Antonio Díaz Peláez Gallery, San Alejandro Academy, July 6, Havana. . . 2005 I always go back. Colographs by Belkis Ayón, Colón Art Gallery, June 3-30, Colón, Matanzas, Cuba. I always go back. Colografías of Belkis Ayon, Provincial Art Gallery Villa Clara, July, Santa Clara, Villa Clara, Cuba. . . 2006 Belkis Returns. Collographies of Belkis Ayón, Ranchuelo Art Gallery, February 3-28, Ranchuelo, Villa Clara, Cuba. The challenge of permanence. Anthological exhibition of Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Pedro Esquerré Gallery, CPAV, May 12-June 11, Matanzas, Cuba. Belkis Ayón. Origin of a myth, Villa Manuela Gallery, October 6 to November 4, Havana. . 2007 Sikan. Revelation of a myth, Art Gallery Raúl Martínez, Jan. 17- Feb. 15. Ciego de Avila, Cuba. . . 2009 Nkame. Belkis Ayón (1967-1999), Anthological Exhibition, San Francisco de Asís Convent, September 11 - December 20, Havana, Cuba. . .

REVELATIONS Restlessness / Restlessness Belkis Ayón Manso January, 1998 When Darrel Couturier sent to request by fax the title for this exhibition he still did not have it, he had not even thought about it, to be honest. That day I had a great commitment to attend the opening of the first personal exhibition of two of my students. After finishing my work as a spectator and as a guardian angel (teacher), I went to my friend Cristina's house where I would meet Rafa who would bring the letter to Darrel with the title of the exhibition. When I left this other, nothing occurred to me - I went into a state of desperation imperceptible to the eye - again showing my moderate personality, less to laugh and do great colography ... READ MORE Confessions Belkis Ayón Manso February 11, 1991 Some time ago I studied some of the components of our culture, on the African side, the carabalíes and of them the Abakuá Secret Society, made up only of men, a mutual aid and relief society, self-financed by its members. It resurfaces in the 30s of the 19th century in Cuba under other conditions and objectives very different from those of its African ancestors. There are people who feel and have the need to believe in something, which is inherent in human existence and one of those many examples is the following ... READ MORE

MAIN COLLECTIONS House of the Americas, Havana, Cuba. José Lezama Lima House Museum, Havana, Cuba. Wifredo Lam Contemporary Art Center, Havana, Cuba. Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zurich, Switzerland. Dr.hc Wolfgang Schreiner, Bad Steben, Germany. Museum of Art / Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. Galerie Kho Kho René Corail, Fort de France, Martinique, France. luag. Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum, State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany. Sofía Imbert Museum of Contemporary Art, Caracas, Venezuela. National Museum of Fine Arts, Havana, Cuba. National Museum of Engraving, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Museum of Contemporary Art. MOCA, Los Angeles, California, United States. The Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, United States. The Museum of Modern Art, MOMA, New York, United States. The Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica, California, United States. Coda Museum Apeldoorn, Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. Antonio Pérez Foundation, Cuenca, Spain. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, United States. Alex Rosenberg Fine Art, New York, United States. Brownstone Foundation, Paris, France. The Selden Rodman Collection, Art Galleries Ramapo College of New Jersey, United States. University of Central Florida Library, Orlando, Florida, United States. Nelson Fine Art Center, Tempe, Arizona, United States. Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, The Netherlands. The von Christierson Collection, London, England Metropiltan Pavilion, New York, United States. The Farber Collection, New York, United States.

BELKIS AYÓN: EARLY WORK Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania . . September, 2003 Text to the catalog: Rosemary Branson Gill. The sponsors: Massachusetts College of Art Massachusetts Cultural Council Spire Belkis Ayón. Early works, is sponsored by Alex Rosenberg Fine Art, New York. Exhibition and reception presented in conjunction with Revolution and Representation: An International Conference on Contemporary Printmaking. This exhibition was presented at: 2003-2004 Resurrection. Belkis Ayón (1967-1999) Collographs from Cuba, Massachusetts College of Art, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania and Brandywine Workshop, October 11-January 4, 2004, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Co-sponsored by: Romance Languages Department Latin American Women and Culture Studies Program Center for African Studies, University of Pennsylvania With the support of the Department of Religious Studies, Department of Arts, Center for African American Research, House of Latin and African Studies. Collaboration with the Brandywine Workshop and Alex Rosenberg Fine Art, New York.

AJIACO: STIRRINGS OF THE CUBAN SOUL Lyman Allyn Art Museum, New London, Connecticut, United States September 12, 2009 - February 21, 2010 In 1939 Fernando Ortiz first characterized Cuban culture as Ajiaco : a rich stew consisting of a large variety of ingredients cooked until a thick broth is formed. It is this synthesis of the essence of Cuban art. It embraces and visualizes the very nature of the Cuban soul and reveals the depth of its expression. This is the subject of Ajiaco: Stirrings of the Cuban soul. The art incorporates the tales of the Orisha of Africa, the calligraphy of the Tao Te Ching, and the rituals of indigenous peoples. The formats change, the materials vary, but the syncretist mix remains constant in Cuban and Cuban American art. The stew becomes thicker as the syncretism evolves into a Post Modern discourse. In the contemporary artworks, the artist has felt motivated, by necessity, to appropriate from history and everyday life. We find in the art an amalgam of forms and images ranging from Pop culture to the Byzantine, and high art to low art, using found materials and precious objects. The curator writes, "Isolated and yet educated, restricted and yet heralded, the Cuban artist embodies the angst of their situation and yet embraces the loftiest of goals. Their syncretist tradition and heritage allow them to go beyond the monotheistic traditions in order to find the origins of their soul, the geist or inner spirit of their art. " Gail Gelburd, Ph. D., curator of this project, has been conducting research on Cuban art and artists for over 15 years. She has regularly traveled to Cuba and has lectured for the Havana Biennale, Havana University, and in the Casa Africa in Cuba. She has also lectured about the intersection of art, politics, and spirituality in Taiwan, Korea, South Africa, Australia, England, and Wales, and at such major institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and for Williams College and the Chicago Art Institute. Gelburd has received numerous grants and awards, including a Rockefeller Foundation grant to conduct research on Cuban art, and is publishing a book on Contemporary Cuban art. The article "Beyond the Hype: Cuban art" appeared in Reconstruction: Issues in Contemporary Culture in Winter 2008 and another article "Cuba: The Art of Trading with the Enemy" appears in Art Journal in Spring 2009. Participating artists: Alejandro Aguilera, Belkis Ayón, Luis Cruz Azaceta, José Bedia, Juan Boza, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Nelson Domínguez, Juan Francisco Elso, Carlos Estévez, Flora Fong, Joel Jover, Wifredo Lam, Laura Luna, Ana Mendieta, Manuel Mendive, Clara Morera, Santiago Rodríguez Olazábal, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Sandra Ramos, Lázaro Saavedra, Tomas Sánchez, Esterio Segura, Cepp Selgas, Leandro Soto, Elio Vilva.

DRAPETOMANIA Galería de Arte Universal, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba / Consejo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, La Habana / 8th Floor Gallery, New York, United States / Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California, United States / The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. April, 2013 - 2015 The exhibition Drapetomanía: Grupo Antillano y the Art of Afro-Cuba, which was presented in Santiago de Cuba and Havana, arrives at Harvard University after having been shown in New York and San Francisco. Originally exhibited at the Provincial Center of Plastic Arts and Design in Santiago de Cuba (April-May, 2013), where it was described as "one of the best exhibitions of plastic arts in recent years in Santiago de Cuba," Drapetomanía now travels to the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and Afro-American Art at Harvard University after have been exhibited at the Center for the Development of the Visual Arts in Havana, The 8th Floor Gallery in New York and the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. Drapetomanía pays tribute to Grupo Antillano (1978-1983), a previously forgotten cultural and artistic movement, which proposed a vision of Cuban culture that highlighted the importance of African and Afro-Caribbean elements in the formation of the nation. The exhibition offers a revisionist reading of the so-called “new Cuban art” and highlights the need to include the work of artists who tried to think about the Cuban from their connections with the African diaspora. Grupo Antillano's art is part of a long Caribbean tradition of resistance and cultural affirmation, of that "prodigious effort of self-defense" and of "ideological cimarronearía" that, according to the Haitian poet René Depestre, allowed the enslaved masses of the hemisphere rework their pasts and cultures. The title of the show, Drapetomania, refers to an alleged illness described in the mid-19th century by a plantation physician in Louisiana. From the Greek drapetes (escape, flee) and mania (madness), the most visible symptom of this curious disease was the irrepressible and pathological tendency of many slaves to flee and be free. In other words, the doctor described maroon as a disease, a disease, a deviation from the natural order, an expression of the indomitable savagery of blacks. Curated by historian Alejandro de la Fuente, professor at Harvard University, the Drapetomanía exhibition is complemented by the book Grupo Antillano: el arte de Afro-Cuba, edited by the curator of the exhibition, with essays by art critics and historians like Guillermina Ramos Cruz, José Veigas and Judith Bettelheim. The exhibition includes works by Grupo Antillano artists (Esteban Ayala, Rogelio Rodríguez Cobas, Manuel Couceiro, Herminio Escalona, Ever Fonseca, Ramón Haiti, Adelaida Herrera, Arnaldo Rodríguez Larrinaga, Oscar Rodríguez Lasseria, Alberto Lescay, Manuel Mendive, Leonel Morales, Clara Morera, Miguel Ocejo, Rafael Queneditt and Julia Valdés) and a group of contemporary artists who have shown in their work similar concerns to those articulated by Grupo Antillano (Belkis Ayón, Bedia, Choco, Diago, Esquivel, Marta María Pérez Bravo, Montalván, Olazábal, Douglas Pérez, Peña, Elio Rodríguez and Leandro Soto). In other words, Drapetomanía proposes a new genealogy in Cuban plastic arts that connects creators from generations and diverse artistic trajectories through their shared attention to issues such as race, identity, and the meanings of the Cuban. The show will be exhibited at Harvard from January 29 to the end of May of this year. Information provided by Alejandro de la Fuente, Curator.

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS Estudio Figueroa-Vives / Norwegian Embassy, El Vedado, Havana, Cuba September - November, 2019 Towers and Tombs Read more Drapetomania. Tribute Exhibition to Grupo Antillano Galería de Arte Universal, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba / Consejo Nacional de Artes Plásticas, La Habana / 8th Floor Gallery, New York, United States / Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, California, United States / The Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. April 2013 - 2015 Read more Museo de Arte Maníaco, Alfredo Ramos's Colonial House, Línea106, Havana, Cuba. October 26, 2014 Witches, but also warlocks Read more Havana, Cuba. October 13, 2014 Eva leaves and takes flight. Eva stops being a rib Read more Dinner-auction within the framework of the sixth and last edition of the Leo Brouwer Chamber Music Festival Havana Cuba. October 5, 2014 Read more Next

SOLO EXHIBITIONS Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles, California, United States March 10, 1998 Desasosiego / Restlessness Read more Church of St. Barbara, Breining, Germany November 7, 1995 Unterstütze mich, halte mich hoch, im Schmerz. Belkis Ayón / Hold me in pain Read more Servando Cabrera Moreno Art Gallery December, 1988 Proposal at age 20 Read more return to personal exhibitions